Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race
by Jayan phoenix
Summary: Earth faces its biggest challenge, they will either fall to the Lucian Alliance and Betrayal or they will rise as the fifth Race. Atlantis must return to the Pegasus Galaxy and the Destiny Expedition are stranded in stasis, and the IOA are not helping the situation.
1. Chapter 1

Stargate Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter One**

**The Origin of Terra**

In the large galaxy known as the Milky Way or Avalon was the Sol System.

It was a small system with only eight planets as well as several dwarf-planets, planetoids, and asteroids all orbiting a single main sequence star, but this small and isolated system was perhaps one of the most historically important and diverse systems in a number of Galaxies.

It was not the system itself that was so important. No it was a single planet, the third from the yellow dwarf star, a green and blue world, the only planet in the system that supported life.

Many names had been given to this small planet throughout its history. To the original settlers it was known as Terra. To the frequent observers it was also called Midgard or Tau'ri by those that pillaged it, but to its inhabitants it was simply called Earth.

To know the start of the planet's long history, you would need to look an estimated sixty million years in the past when the planet was discovered by the first evolution of Humanity, a highly evolved and incredibly advanced race of humans called Altera who had travelled from the very distant Celestis Galaxy after splitting away from their own society due to two different factions pursuing two different ways of life.

Arriving on the ship known as _Genesis_ after many longs years of travel, they landed on the planet of Dakara and began to settle in the Milky Way. They discovered Terra during their exploration and chose the planet as their new Homeworld. It was to become what would be the centrepiece of their domain.

The Ancient Altera, as this group were called at this place in history, were responsible for many inventions and advanced technologies being created, and one technology became their most iconic and is believed to be their greatest achievement.

The Stargate.

In their language the device is called an Astoria Porta. Its purpose is to allow for near-instantaneous transportation between two different points in space, for example two planets on either side of the galaxy. It did this by creating an artificial wormhole between two gates through which a user could step through one gate and exit the other in an entirely different location and on a different planet.

They created a vast Stargate Network throughout the Milky Way that connected all of the worlds that the Ancient Altera had colonised and visited and allowed for a speedy method of transportation across their large domain. The network itself was expanded out into neighbouring galaxies where they occasional interacted with the native advanced races.

The Ancient Altera colonised many of the planets within the Milky Way Galaxy and carried out great terraforming projects, creating a huge number of worlds fit for habitation.

As a race, they were focused on scientific study, and during their travels to the Milky Way aboard _Genesis_ they had discovered a mystery in the very fabric of the universe. Once they had settled on Terra, they built a series of ships that would venture out into the unknown regions of space and lay a path.

The pathfinding ships were sent out unmanned to gather data from the many galaxies that they encountered and even provided a rudimentary gate system to each galaxy it passed through. The data they collected was streamed directly into a larger ship, a ship that was built not to find paths through the many galaxies but to find the answer to the oldest question in the universe, an answer it would spend millions of years collecting portions of the answer to. But, the ship would never be visited by its creators and would continue on a lone, long after they had left the universe.

Five to Ten Million years ago saw the fall of the Ancient Altera domain when a Great Plague spread throughout the galaxy and seemed to predominantly target Ancient Altera physiology, but other races were also affected to various degrees, the plague decimated the Ancient Altera population. In a short time their population dropped to a mere few hundred.

In order to escape the Plague, the remaining Ancient Altera came together and planned to relocate the great city of Atlantis to the neighbouring Pegasus dwarf galaxy, but first they enacted measures that would seed new life into the galaxy that they had called home. Using their own genetic template, they created a second evolution of themselves from a much earlier point in their own development so that the seeded species would not be affected by the plague, and so Human life in its primate state was created.

From Dakara the Ancient Altera unleashed the power of the device they had built and used their own Gate Network to spread out the field that would nullify the effect that the plague was having on the galaxy and reseed life, and with that done the remaining Ancient Altera amassed in Atlantis and travelled to the Pegasus with the hopes of rebuilding their civilisation.

The humans of Terra continued to develop after their creators left and began to evolve and eventually created civilisations, and the Planet came to be called Earth by its new natives.

Earth was discovered in 9,177 BC by a species called the Goa'uld, a sentient parasitic Race that took other beings as host for their own purposes. The being found that human-kind would make for more suitable Hosts than the Unas from its Homeworld and would make for suitable labourers.

The being used the current belief system of the population to install himself as a powerful god, using the image of the sun god Ra to subjugate the humans into his service, and created the means for others of his species to take new hosts and take on the names and personifications of the ancient Egyptian gods.

Ra abducted vast numbers of humans from Earth and distributed them among his planets throughout the galaxy using the Stargate network, as did other Goa'uld. They used the cultures of the people to create a false perception of themselves in order to keep them under their control with the help of technology.

Earth was ruled by Ra until 3,000 BC when a rebellion against his imposed slavery occurred, and he fled the planet. The planet was cut off from the Galaxy when the Stargate that Ra had installed on the planet was buried.

Because of the actions of the Ancient Egyptians, the true history of the planet was lost as they tried to remove all evidence of the slavery to the false gods, and for two thousand years this truth lay hidden from the population of Earth.

Ra never told his fellow System Lords of his defeat on Earth, and so the planet was left alone out of fear of Ra's retribution. It allowed the planet to continue to develop without the oppression of the Goa'uld. Due to the loss of the gate network it remained undiscovered, allowing Earth to develop to a home of billions of Humans, enter an industrialised age, and develop weapons technology.

The Stargate was discovered at Giza in Egypt, and after years of study the secrets of the Stargate and galactic gate travelled was unlocked. However, Earth found itself in a galaxy that was under the control of the System Lords of the Goa'uld, who had once enslaved Earth. In order to defend the planet, the Stargate Program was created to produce viable technology to protect the people of Earth from Alien threats.

The Goa'uld were technologically superior to Earth, possessing weapons and ship technologies they lacked but they perceived Earth as a threat as they would not accept their authority of status as gods. And so began the Earth-Goa'uld War.

The war had lasted a long time, but eventually the System Lords had been defeated. The people of Earth had contributed to their defeat greatly with the help of their off world allies. From the war they had begun develop faster and soon had built their first interstellar ship.

The second mass conflict that Earth had participated in was the war against the scourge known as the Replicators, a form of advance robots whose only directive was to reproduce themselves indefinitely but would protect themselves and would assimilate advanced technologies in order to continue to primary directive.

Replicators, so named because of their prime directive, had been at a war with the Asgard, one of the most advanced technological races in the known Galaxy since the Ancient Altera had left. They were winning. However, Earth and the Asgard were able to win strategic victories over the Replicators, and eventually the threat ended when Samantha Carter of Earth, Sel'mak of the Tok'ra and the Ba'al of the Goa'uld were able to re-program the Ancient device on Dakara and destroy the remaining replicators in the Milky Way where they had fled.

Stargate Command had inadvertently rekindled an ancient feud when they had been researching the origins of the Ancient Altera and had used an Ancient Communication device to travel to the Celestis galaxy.

The Ori were the Alterans that the Ancient Altera had fled from. They, like their fellow beings, had followed the same evolutionary path and ascended. They had also seeded human life in their galaxy but had forced humans to worship them as gods through the teaching of a religion called Origin.

When the Ori discovered the untapped human populations that their Ascended brethren had hidden from them, they had begun a crusade of the Milky Way Galaxy in order to convert the population to Origin and finally destroy the Ancient Altera, whom they perceived as a threat.

The Ori were one of the strongest enemies Earth faced, having technology that rivalled only the Ancient Altera, but Earth found a way of defeated the Ori using Ancient Altera technology to destroy the Ascended Ori and to show the truth of the Ori to the Priors, ending the Earth-Ori war.

While the three conflicts had been happening within the Milky Way Galaxy, a small expedition of humans from Earth had been sent through the Stargate to the address of the legendary city of Atlantis in the hopes of finding the Ancient Altera, who had fled millions of years previously.

Instead, they discovered the fabled city at the bottom of the ocean, dormant and empty.

The Ancient Altera, when they had arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy, had arrived on Lantea and had begun to expand and rebuild their society, but something unforeseeable happened: the creation of a race of beings called Wraith.

The Wraith were a race of humanoid creatures that were native to the Pegasus Galaxy. They fed on human life for sustenance. A war had broken out between the Wraith and the Ancient Altera, who became known as the Lanteans. The war had lasted years, and eventually due to their superior numbers the Wraith had beaten back the Lanteans until all they had was Atlantis. Despite their most advanced technology and weapons, they were defeated. They decided to go back to Earth and return at a later time and deal the with the Wraith.

The Atlantis Expedition inadvertently awoke the Wraith from their slumber, and so began the Earth-Wraith War. Despite overwhelming odds, the Expedition won many victories with a small number of losses. Their greatest loss was their first commander, Elizabeth Weir.

She had been lost to the Asurans. The Asurans were a failed experiment of the Lanteans using nanites. They were more advanced versions of the Replicators from the Milky Way, and they had assimilated the technology of their creators. They had been a powerful enemy. Elizabeth had been lost to the Asurans, but the Atlantis team had their revenge eventually when they had destroyed Asuras.

Despite the off world activities and threats to Earth, the general population of the planet had no idea just what a pivotal role in galactic affairs their small planet had had. Even when the planet had been in danger from enemy fleets had been above the planet or otherwise in the Sol system, they have been blissfully unaware of the danger.

In fact, they had been blissfully unaware that not three hours ago a ship never before seen in the Milky Way had appeared above the planet that they called home.

It was a Wraith Hive ship unlike any that had ever been seen even in the Pegasus Galaxy from which it had travelled. The Hive had been augmented from the power of a Zero Point Module (ZPM) a Lantean power source with incredible potential. The Hive had used the available power to upgrade their organic ships beyond their normal limits.

The zpm-hive had defeated the Earth Defence Fleet as its hull had been impervious to their weapons, and just as the hive arrived over Earth, which was defenceless as the Weapons Platform had been destroyed, the City of Atlantis returned to Earth for the first time since it had left millions of years ago.

The city used its experimental wormhole drive in order to reach Earth in a last ditch effort to stop the Wraith from attacking the planet and had served as a distraction in order to allow the small Atlantis Reconnaissance Team to set off a nuclear device within the Hive, destroying it from within.

Atlantis had been in trouble after the battle. The city required a considerable amount of power to operate, and utilising the stardrive, inertial dampeners, shields, weapons and the wormhole drive had taxed the city to its max. The city began to fall into Earth's Atmosphere.

Many sightings of a gigantic fireball had been posted on social media and been shown on the news but what had been dismissed as a satellite that had fallen from orbit due to a stray asteroid by the governments of the world had been the city. Its descent had finally been controlled and had landed off the coast of San Francisco.

They had moved the city into a private bay just off the coast. It was privately owned by an American billionaire, but the US government and the IOA had rented it to protect the City, and US ships guarded it to prevent its discovery. It had nearly been discovered by a commercial vessel that sailed too close before they had moved it.

Of course, a great city of glittering spires and glass would be easily seen if not for the fact that it was covered in a cloaking field that rendered the city invisible to anyone outside of the field. The downside to this was that the shield required a continuous supply of power to maintain the cloak, and the City's three ZPM's had been drained extensively. To alleviate some power requirements, seven new Mark III naquadah generators had been fitted into the base of the control tower, but their power was not a permanent solution.

Standing in Stargate Operations within the city's Control Tower was Richard Woolsey, the former leader of the Atlantis Expedition, but his future was now less certain just like that of the city had he had grown so fond of. He would need to wait for the IOA to tell him what would happen next.

When the city had touched down, they had moved it into the private bay and finally deactivated the propulsion systems. However, a subroutine in the Atlantis's mainframe activated automatically. The long distance sensors began to peer out into the space around the planet and into the neighbouring systems. The city sensors expanded and then began a detailed scan of the planet. As it did so, the city operating system entered a slumber and became unresponsive.

"Doctor McKay, can you please come to Operations?" Woolsey said into his ear piece after he had been updated on further failures to reboot the City systems from other scientists.

"On my way," Rodney replied over the radio, "I have just finished calibrating the generators; they should last for a few weeks at least."

It only took a few minutes before he arrived from the transport booth.

"Still offline?" Rodney asked impatiently, walking over to the consoles.

"Yes, all stations are online, but the systems will not respond," Chuck told him.

"I know. I had to bypass all systems just to initiate the city cloak. It wasn't a pretty fix" Rodney said. He pulled a laptop towards him, "I think the city is still scanning, but I have no idea why –"

The city systems suddenly began to reboot, and all displays woke again, showing them telemetry for the planet and the Sol System. The city's sensors had discovered the Ancient Weapons platform in the Antarctic Outpost. The SGC was flagged as the location of a Stargate, and it detected the technologies being studied in Area 51, including Asgard science, which the City recognised.

The screens showed the scans that the City had done of the local system, and it identified the many thousands of satellites that encircled the planet and even probes, but it showed the planets that were in the system, too. Then, the Gate Room came to life.

The Pegasus Model Stargate's chevrons lit up, but it wasn't dialling. The constellations that encircled the gate flashed and changed into new ones before reverting back again. Then, the chevrons went dark.

The floor around the Gate suddenly opened up with parts of the floor retracting, leaving and from within the space two metal claws rose up on either side of the gate and gripped the gate.

"Doctor McKay?" Woolsey asked, looking very worried.

"I don't –"Rodney said, stepping forward, just as confused.

The Gate was lifted from its setting, and the floor retracted further. From the new opening, something began to rise out of the floor: a Milky Way Model Stargate. It wasn't the normal grey. Instead, this gate had a metallic golden sheen, but it was a Milky Way model with blocked constellations and red chevrons.

The Pegasus Model was retracted within the opening, and then the floor was returned to normal, looking no different than it would normally apart from the gate that now graced the room.

"I never knew that was there!" Rodney said, walking down the steps to look at the gate, "I carried out a detailed scan of this floor after the lockout device was used by the Lanteans, but I did not get any readings on this."

"Rodney, this gate is old," Zelenka said, looking at it, "but it has the same point of origin symbol as Earth."

"That's impossible!" Rodney exclaimed, "our symbol came from the gate Ra brought to Earth. That would mean that the Goa'uld somehow changed the symbol, but why?"

"Well the symbol does resemble a pyramid and a sun, and he was the god of the sun," Woolsey said. "Why wouldn't he keep it?"

"No –" Rodney said, staring at the symbol critically. "This symbol is slightly different. The circle has marks on it, nine lines…It's a Stargate!"

"Well, it stands to reason the network was built from Earth," Zelenka said, shrugging, "the Ancients must have taken the Earth Gate with them and installed another before they left. They must have created the Pegasus model when they were there and just placed this into storage? Or where ever it just came up from..."

"True, but why has the city changed gates? The Pegasus gate would take precedence automatically," Rodney said as he stormed back up to operations and checked the systems.

"Atlantis, this is General Landry at the SGC," came a voice over the radio.

"Go ahead, General," Woolsey replied.

"I don't suppose you will know why our gate systems just turned off," he asked, sounding very annoyed.

"I think we might have an idea," Woolsey said, raising his eyebrows in surprise and looking at McKay and Zelenka in question

"General," McKay said, tapping into the frequency, "Atlantis has changed the gate that in Stargate Operations to a Milky Way Model. We believe that this may be the original Earth gate. It might be possible the gate network itself recognises it as the dominant gate for this location and has locked yours out, like a Pegasus model does if introduced to this network."

"Can you not deactivate your gate?" he asked gruffly, no doubt glaring at his communication terminal.

"No, the system was automatic, and I haven't found access to it," Rodney said honestly and a bit put out.

"Doctor, I have seven off world teams scheduled for check in within the next two hours and a further seven teams waiting to go off world. We need our gate back up and running," General Landry demanded.

"General, I think for the time being Atlantis can deal with all off world travel," Woolsey said, "at least for the time being before a permanent solution can arranged."

"Very well. For now, please have your Atlantis Reconnaissance Teams stand in for now. I will have the SG teams transported over. Landry out."

Over the next few weeks, Atlantis had seen a great many people walk its corridors. Stargate Command had temporarily been relocated to the city. The SG teams and AR teams had merged to become a united team of people travelling the Milky Way.

John Sheppard, for his services whilst Ranking Military Officer, was given the promotion to Colonel, while Evan Lorne was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. Other personnel were similarly advanced.

The Atlantis science department was kept on the city permanently, as had the operations technicians. John had appealed directly to General O'Neill after the IOA tried to have the SGC technicians and Area 51 scientists replace the Atlantis personnel. Many scientists could not wait to get into the database and technology in the city, but they had to be curtailed to prevent accidents, and areas of the city were locked down.

Earth's fleet had been badly damaged in the Battle with the Super-Hive. Only one ship had escaped the damage. _Odyssey_ had been unavailable due to it being sent to a distant planet to set up a new base to study the mystery of the Stargate Ninth Chevron. They required the planets naquadria core for the research. Earth had been unable to reach the ship for fear of the Alliance discovering it on the edge of their territory.

_USS Daedalus,_ _Apollo_ sat over the planet undergoing repairs, getting them back to being battle ready. The newly constructed _George Hammond_ had been rushed into service and had been sent to recover the crippled _Sun_ _Tzu_, which was also undergoing extensive repairs that would take months.

This left the George Hammond the only ship currently operational that was readily available for the defence of the planet.

The Daedalus-Class had seen significant improvements and upgrades since the initial design of D_aedalus_. When the Asgard had fitted various upgrades to _Odyssey_ before they committed mass suicide, the technicians of Earth had been able to retrofit some of the technologies like the Asgard designed Plasma Beam Weapons to other ships in the fleet, but others could not be so easily just be added.

When the _Prometheus_ had been Earths flagship, they had made great strides with ship technologies and advances, which necessitated a new design of ship, giving birth to the Daedalus-class. The Class had been built from the ground up with the most current technologies. Since construction began, it had become a well proven design, so with the more recent advances made were being incorporated into a new series of the Class using information from the Asgard Core and the Ancient Database.

_George Hammond_ was the first Mark II built, and its systems were the most advanced with better shielding, weapons and power generation. The command had been debated, but it had been given to the recently promoted Brigadier General Samantha Carter, a legend in the Stargate Program and a former member of SG-1, leader of the Atlantis Expedition, a woman who had pushed Earth technology into a new age and had been instrumental in the defeat of the Goa'uld, Replicators, Ori, Lucian Alliance, Asurans and the Wraith.

_Odyssey_ was an oddity in the fleet. When the Asgard had built into it a database that contained the knowledge of the entire race, the Asgard Core had been built into the ship's own systems, and none wanted to risk the core by trying to remove it from _Odyssey_, so it remained aboard and was studied intently by scientists, helped by Doctor Daniel Jackson, but it was a war ship, which necessitated it being sent out on missions.

Command of the ship had previously been given temporarily to Colonel Cameron Mitchell for its the mission to the Celestis Galaxy to uncover the Ark of Truth, and in that mission Earth had finally defeated the Ori. Afterward, the command had been officially granted to him along with a promotion to Brigadier General.

The fleet of Earth was growing with a larger number of Daedalus-Class Battle cruisers in production, but it was also being debated whether to begin the production of an improved design of an earlier class.

The Improved-Prometheus-Class was in the initial stages of being designed, but the IOA had the idea scrapped as they would not help with its construction, preferring all efforts being put to the construction of the Daedalus-Class.

Rodney had been called on to help with the Icarus project but had refused to leave the city, and the SGC had even drafted in help from Jeanie, Rodney's sister.

The Atlantis database was also a cause of frustration due to the protections and redundancies built into it by the Ancient Lanteans. They had written into the very base code of the database that it could not be removed or the data would be destroyed, and the entire database could not be transferred to a new data core as the security features prevented this. It even stopped the transfer of many portions (of what?) to external data cores, so the scientists were forced to study it on Atlantis on the city's terminals.

The City had caused great debates across the world and especially with the IOA as nobody could agree on what should happen with the great city. Some wanted it to return to Pegasus. Others wanted it in the Milky Way to become a the first off world colony. Others wanted it left on Earth to serve as SGC and Homeworld Command but as an international facility.

However, a large faction of the oversight committees wanted the city to be stripped of all salvageable technology and material and be scrapped as they did not see what function it had. They believed that the Pegasus Galaxy was too far away to care about, and they were not a threat to Earth. They believed that the Wraith should be left to Pegasus.

An alliance formed between Woolsey, O'Neill, Carter and Sheppard as they believed they still had an obligation to the humans of the Pegasus Galaxy. If they were not in Pegasus, they would have no idea if the Wraith were trying to reach the Milky Way not to mention the possibility of finding further Ancient technology.

But one thing was for sure: the future of the Atlantis expedition was bleak.

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_Edited:__ May 2016_

_Beta__: _The Avid Musician

Authors Note: I am finally have this story Beta'd so watch this space

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	2. Chapter 2

Stargate Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Two**

**The Petition**

It had been a month and a half since Atlantis had returned to Earth, and still there had been no definitive plan or agreement on the future of the ancient city. The politicians were not rushing to make a decision, and the amount of differences and disagreements in policy and proposals meant that a decision wouldn't be made any time soon.

The plans were not helped by the conflict with the Lucian Alliance heating up. They had attacked Icarus Base, and the personnel from the base had been transported to a ship that was billions of light-years away in a galaxy on the other side of the universe. They were stranded. A US senator had also been killed on the ship, and the expensive base and rare planet had been destroyed as the planet core went critical.

With the decision for the future of the expedition in limbo, John petitioned the need to return Ronon and Teyla back to Pegasus as they were only on Earth because they wanted to help defend a planet that was not their own with Teyla leaving her son with his father just so she could help Earth.

That petition alone had taken a week for any decision to be made by the IOA, and when they returned they advised that they were unable to fulfil the request as they did not have a ship to spare or were unwilling to waste the power of the already depleted ZPM's dialling another Galaxy. The IOA had been falsely apologetic but pointed out that at least on Earth they were safe from the Wraith.

Furious with the decision, John went straight to General Carter, who was sympathetic to the situation. She had agreed to try and help as it was possible that she could transport them because her ship was finishing its rundown cruises before it was deemed fully finished.

Sam had secretly gone to Jack late at night, using the beaming technology to arrive without anyone in the IOA or Washington finding out. Jack had been surprised to see her but after a beer agreed to her idea of transporting them on the pretence of testing the ship's systems. Jack had the purview to make the plan work as he led Homeworld Command, but he hoped to keep the plan as legitimate as possible.

He green lit the mission, which was officially a test of Hammond's hyperdrive and engines on a long voyage, but would in fact travel to the Pegasus Galaxy and drop out at the nearest planet with a gate, allowing both Teyla and Ronon to gate to New Athos. It wasn't what anyone wanted, but it was the best they were able to do.

In the end it was only Teyla who was taken back to Pegasus, and while the _Hammond_ was in the area it carried out recon on the Wraith on the edge of the void. When Sam returned, she reported that the Wraith were again consolidating, and it seemed that they were getting organised. The _Hammond_ had detected a smaller faction of Wraith that were lingering on the outer edges of the dwarf Galaxy, which she believed could be the remnants of Todd's former alliance of Wraith.

Ronon decided to stay with John on Earth and joined with the SG teams a number of times to make up for no longer fighting the Wraith, but he found the SG teams boring without the threat of the Wraith and instead took up Teal'c on his offer to visit him and the Free Jaffa Nation.

The Jaffa on Dakara had not been overly welcoming. Their capital planet and the city were still being repaired after the destruction the Ori caused, but Teal'c introduced him to training camps for young Jaffa warriors.

John was not worried about Ronon. Teal'c had guaranteed him that he would be returned alive, but the trials of combat would be long, and Ronon had told John under no circumstances was he returning until he had beaten every Jaffa who challenged him.

The SGC had requested that John be assigned to them because of his knowledge and experience, but none of the teams he was assigned to lead were a good fit. He began to resent the job, and it was well known that John wanted to return to Pegasus. Anyone who ended up on his team knew it wouldn't be for long.

With Atlantis standing in for the SGC while the fate of the city was decided, the IOA and Homeworld Command announced that the Cheyanne Mountain facility would get an overhaul and a major upgrade, which had been needed for six years.

General Landry was remaining at the SGC to oversee the upgrade and renovations, but that left Atlantis without a commander as Woolsey was otherwise busy in Washington, so Landry asked John to step in as it was a natural fit, and Landry new that John would prefer it to leading an SG team.

The IOA had refused to allow any of the repairs and maintenance that the city needed as they believed that the city would be destroyed, not that John listened to their ruling on the city's status. He secretly had Atlantis engineers spread across the city to do their jobs like patching the lower levels as some still were damaged from flooding or were underwater.

Other long term damage was also being patched. When Atlantis had left Lantea for New Lantea, the city had been badly damaged when crossing an asteroid belt. Large sections of the towers were missing or otherwise damaged. This work was hidden by a 'Jumper's cloak to hide it from the IOA, who were often sniffing around the city, but he was having the areas stripped back, so they looked less damaged. They didn't have the materials or the necessary equipment to replace the missing sections so it was a makeshift job for now.

John was not a poor man. His father had a great deal of wealth and had been a powerful American businessmen. His brother had taken most of the wealth and had taken over as CEO of the company, but John had access to funds if he chose. He was using all the pull he could buy and persuade to have the city return to Pegasus.

Dressed in his military uniform, he travelled to Washington to meet with the IOA and O'Neill for the final decision on the city's future.

"I am not going to lie to you, Sheppard. I do not know how this meeting will go," Jack said as they travelled to the meeting location, "This issue has divided many, and it makes the outcome unsure, but we have allies in the British. They want the city return to Pegasus, but they are being cagey and not that cooperative at the moment."

"You know that Rodney found a new weapon on the city, don't you, Sir?" John said glumly, wanting to chase the subject.

It had been quite a shock when McKay had accidently triggered a weapons system they had not known about. Three large turrets had deployed from the top of three towers on the piers that did not have the drone silos. They did not activate or fire as no one was in the chair, but it was thought that they would work if needed.

With them online, they found some information on them in the database. Rodney had been able to tell they were actually what the defence satellites were based on. The three turrets when activated would fire three energy beams above the city, which would meet in the centre above the Control tower before forming a powerful beam of energy much stronger and more potent than the Asgard plasma beam weapons and still stronger than the defence satellite.

"Yes, very bad timing, but you can't turn your nose up. If it comes to a fight, they might be useful, if we can power it. Although, it would have been better if he could have stopped his tampering with the city for a week. The IOA will not want this technology to slip away from them."

"Well, Rodney is known for his moments," John smirked, "but I am telling you now, that city will be returning to Pegasus, even if I have to steal it and take it there myself."

"Careful, Sheppard. That is dangerous talk. If I was any other general, you could possibly be court martialled," Jack warned. "We'll see how this meeting goes before we plan further."

The remainder of the journey went by silently. Sheppard was not in the mood for talk. He was planning his speech to the committee, and it was now more than ever that he wished that an old friend was here. She would have known what to do and say but would have had more favours than he did to pull strings.

She was a woman that he had greatly respected, and he still missed her after so many years. He still wished things had been different. He would have willingly sacrificed himself to save her, and if she was still here, the city would have been in no danger.

When they arrived, they were made to wait an hour after their supposed start date, which only fuelled John's annoyance more, but eventually they were sat down in front of the higher members.

"Colonel Sheppard and General O'Neill, thank you for waiting. We needed further time to discuss the issue you brought before us," Carl Storm said, looking at them. "The issue of the City of Atlantis has been discussed thoroughly, and we have come to a decision."

"However, before our decision has been made, we would invite you to have your final input into the debate," Mr Chapman, the British representative, said warmly, looking at them with curiosity.

John stood carefully and regarded them coolly. "As you know, the Ancient Altera escaped this Galaxy in Atlantis to outrun a plague. Once there, they built their new empire. The city of Atlantis was used as their base, and then they seeded life in that Galaxy."

"The city is a symbol of hope to Pegasus, and in our short amount of years there, we were able to win many battles against the Wraith, a feat only accomplished by the Ancient Altera or Lanteans as they are known there. I know that you want to strip the city down for its technology, but Pegasus was the site of an empire. There are many planets that have Lantean outposts and technology. We discovered warships, power sources, and other technologies. If the Wraith were to gain this technology to travel to the Milky Way, you would be allowing them to prey on the humans of this Galaxy, just as if you were opening the door yourself."

"I would remind you Mr Storm," Jack said, "that the president has pledged his support for the Expedition to continue. He does not feel that the City should be destroyed. Your own representative Richard Woolsey has also stated on the record that the City should return. As Commander of Homeworld Command, I would much rather have the city in Pegasus to be a defence of Earth. With it there, the Wraith will seek to defeat them before coming to Earth, giving us better warnings of impending attack."

"Yes, yes, General. We have heard your views before. However, the Atlantis Expedition was an international operation, and therefore your government is only one voice of many that needed to be convince," Storm stated, "And we are currently more interested in the Lucian Alliance and helping the Destiny Expedition members get home."

"The Wraith are not an immediate threat to this Galaxy. The Alliance is stepping up its war against us, and there is a small coalition of Goa'uld that have gained a foothold over three planets, and the Free Jaffa are still hostile towards us," Shen Xiaoyi said, "the technology on Atlantis alone is enough for us. With the new weapons systems we will be able to reverse engineer our own version, and we will have the technology we need to defend ourselves."

"That is a mistake!" John exclaimed, "There is more in Pegasus than we already have! You are allowing the death of thousands to save yourselves!"

"Colonel, would you rather save the lives of humans in another Galaxy over those of your own planet," Shen Xiaoyi said, "We have the Asgard Core and Atlantis database here on Earth. What more do we need? We have the technology to defeat any threat, or we can trade to prevent hostility."

"You cannot be serious!" Jack snapped loudly, "You cannot trade any technology from Atlantis or from the Asgard Legacy! That is above your purview."

"No, the technology on Atlantis falls under our jurisdiction General," Storm stated firmly.

"And what is your decision for the City?" John asked, losing his patience.

"All salvageable technology is to be removed and sent to Area 51 for further study. Other systems will be removed and placed within a New IOA facility. The database will also be transferred, but the remaining structures will be dismantled, and useable materials will be recycled," Shen Xiaoyi stated clearly.

"And when will this happen?" Jack asked, distaste showing on his face.

"Within the next six months," Jean Liérre the French representative told him, "The city will remain as the acting SGC for now whilst Cheyanne Mountain has its upgrade. The chair will be used for Earth defence, so all of the ZPM's will remain for now."

John went to stand and opened his mouth to argue, but Jack placed a hand on his arm to stop him.

"Then, as Commander of Homeworld Command, I would have the city turned over to me for the next six months as it is the acting SGC and the only defence Earth has," Jack demanded, "After the six months are over, you can do what you want."

The IOA representatives did not speak for a moment as they looked at him speculatively.

"I find this agreeable," Mr Chapman stated, looking around, "Atlantis is a home to the expedition, but General O'Neill is correct. It falls under his jurisdiction as Commander of Homeworld Command. I would also point out that withholding it would be against the agreement that we ourselves signed."

"Agreements can be changed!" the Chinese representative exclaimed, "This is unacceptable."

"No," Jean added, "this is following the procedure that the IOA has set for the planet, and it will take 6 months of the agreement to be changed anyway."

The French and British representatives were receiving cold looks from the Russian, American, and Chinese members, but it seemed that they had no choice but to agree the decision, but they were not happy.

Jack had been forced to nearly strong arm John out of the room and into the car.

"What was that Sir!" he shouted.

"That was me buying time," Jack said, "you were lucky your friends in France and Britain were able to pull strings with their representatives and find a way around the others."

"They did nothing!" John exclaimed angrily, "They gave us six months."

"Yes, but that was all they could get you as they have to operate within the confines of their own authority, and by pointing out to us that they had six months, it prevented the other nations from premature destruction." Jack explained, "I was able to get them to agree to doing just that. Your own efforts got them onside, but they could not find a way to help. I just gave them a way."

"But what good is six months?" John asked.

"Much can happen in six months, Sheppard. You should know that," Jack told him.

"And you are now in command of my city," John commented, "What do you plan for the city General?"

Jack shrugged, "Well, I think it would be a good idea to see what supplies the city would need for a full expedition. In case we ever build a city-ship in the future, it would be good to know. I would also like to see a report on the full diagnostics of the shield and star drive."

John paused and nodded, frowning. He wondered if he was getting a hidden message from the General, but even if he wasn't, he had a plan in his own mind, and people to get to the city. Doctor Weir's dream was still far off, but he hoped he was striding towards it.

**/************************************************\**

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_Edited:__ June 2016_

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Authors Note: I am finally have this story Beta'd so watch this space

**/**********************************************\**


	3. Chapter 3

Stargate Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Three**

**Pegasus**

It had been two weeks since John and Jack's meeting with the IOA, and it had been a very busy two weeks for them both. John had reached out to all the members of the previous expedition and made quiet enquiries to see if they would be willing to return to Pegasus but told them that it was possible that they would be out of communication with Earth for some time.

The response had been very positive. Nearly every member of the expedition had agreed to return to the far away Galaxy. All of the people who had agreed to return felt that they owed further aid to Pegasus and that further gains could be made by continuing to explore the second home of the Ancient Altera.

Jack had also added people to the expedition roster, adding another hundred people with various skills that they would need. Atlantis personnel had previously mostly consisted of scientists, medical staff, soldiers, and support staff. Jack had assigned archaeologists, linguists, but most importantly mechanical and structural engineers. The city needed repairs currently, and who knew what they would find when they returned.

Once all who had agreed had been briefed in secret, their belongings had been sent to the city, and slowly the people were brought to the city but in low numbers to avoid suspicion. The city's immense size meant that they were able to use parts that had previously been left unused to prevent discovery. John had been able to purchase the supplies and resources himself using the money that he had inherited from his father, and he had even asked his brother for more. Though John couldn't tell him the reason why, he told him a vague answer, which his brother bought after speaking to John's ex-wife.

Weapons had not been an easy purchase, but Jack had pointed him in the direction of an old acquaintance who dabbled in the black market. He had been able to acquire the weapons that they needed as well as the equipment and supplies to make further ammunition should they require it.

Current technology from R&amp;D, including prototypes, was moved to Atlantis from Area 51 with the pretence of further research by the Atlantis staff using the Atlantis Database but was actually sent straight to storage. These requisitions and transfers continued for a further two weeks.

Eventually, the city was ready to leave Earth for a second time in its known history. Jack had yet to green light any change to the city's location. He was playing this very carefully. He had visited Britain and France to seek the approval of their highest level of government to sign a document that would back his order over the IOA's intervention. It would not mean much but it would allow him to save his job and stay in command of the planet's defences. The Russians also agreed to the proposal thanks to the help of Daniel who seemed to be able to negotiate well with them, something Jack could not comprehend.

Departure had been delayed after the Lucian Alliance had attacked Homeworld Command and crashed a Tel'tak carrying a seventy megaton Naquadria bomb into the pentagon. It had leaked considerable amounts of radiation into the building.

The affected areas had been cordoned off, and shield emitters had been placed to seal in the radiation, but the Alliance wanted Destiny and had even managed to get aboard after getting their hands of the research and technology from the Icarus project from there moles on Earth. They had been stopped at a price.

Jack had no intention of allowing the Alliance to get near Atlantis, so he renewed the efforts to get the city ready to leave.

The Destiny Expedition again caused a delay when the Ancient Communication Stones were used in order to gain control of the Langaran Stargate facility and their Naquadria laced planet. Woolsey had been in charge of the diplomatic approach, and Rodney had been called in to help with the power issues. They had been forced to cancel the test, but all indicators showed that it would have worked.

The last part in his plan was the acquisition of three near full ZPMs from Earth's stock. That had perhaps been one of the trickiest items for Jack to get, but with the salvage from the super hive, they had a number of them that had been swapped for Atlantis' own used ones.

Eventually, the time came when Jack was happy for the city to leave Earth, but they had been delayed by a week because of McKay. He did not want the city to attempt to travel until every system had been checked and diagnostics run to ensure that they were functioning. He was still annoyed about the use of the wormhole drive and the damage it did to the city systems.

They integrated the Mark III Naquadah generators directly into the power distribution system. They could not power the stardrive, but they would add additional power to the city whilst in transit to reduce the drain on the ZPMs. They hoped that they would save enough power to be able to fly the city again if needed but also to have power to defend the city with the shield and weapons when they landed.

After many delays, the city was ready to leave, and Jack decided that it was time to put the plan into action. He flew from the Pentagon to Atlantis in a borrowed Puddle Jumper, deciding how he would deal with the final issue: Richard Woolsey.

The IOA had reassigned him back to the City after the negotiations with Langara had failed. He oversaw the work of the science teams and was on hand to watch over Stargate operations as they had not been able to deactivate the gate. Secretly, the IOA had placed Woolsey on the city to keep an eye on John as they felt he would try to gate back to Pegasus, and Jack had smiled to himself at that nugget of information. They had reason to suspect John, but they had not been far off the mark of what was planned.

Jack arrived in Operations he found Woolsey there speaking with the system technicians with his back to him, covertly he pulled out a 'Zat that was concealed in his pocket and stalked towards the man.

"Why are you all in Operations? There are no off world teams, and nobody is going off world for the next few days whilst all teams undergo a full evaluation," Woolsey asked, and a large number of people hurriedly left. He then turned to Chuck to say, "Five protected planets have been attacked, and we believe that there is someone communicating with the Lucian Alliance. Have you found any subspace broadcasts or cloaked vessels as I asked you to search for them?"

"No, Mr Woolsey. The City sensors have not been able to detect any cloaked vessels entering the atmosphere or in orbit. However, the sensors have been turned off for technicians from Area 51 to study a number of times, so they could have entered the atmosphere during that time. The IOA demanded that we comply."

Jack frowned. He had not known about that, and it made him feel uneasy, especially when key members of the IOA were pushing for the protected planets treaty to be scrapped and to leave most of the planets to fend for themselves, a decision he greatly opposed. Thor had entrusted them with a responsibility, and he would not let the Asgard down.

Jack did not waste another moment and shot Woolsey with the energy based weapon. He slumped immediately to the floor.

"General?" John said, waking towards him

"It's time," Jack said, smiling, "Remember, radio silence for the foreseeable future, and when communication is to be established, wait for my signal. I will take Woolsey back with me."

"No, sir. Leave him here. We could have use for him," John requested, looking at the man, deep in thought.

"If you are sure, just don't kill him. This city is now in your care, Colonel Sheppard. If you do your job correctly, you will remain, so when the IOA pulls their heads out of their -"

"Asking for one more thing, Sir, we will need a ship." John said quietly.

"Daedalus will be with you in Pegasus. Officially, it will be sent to retrieve you all. However, once in Pegasus you will need to remove the locator beacon," Jack said vaguely. "I would also have the city searched just in case. It wouldn't be a surprise if subspace transmitters were installed."

"Yes, Sir," John said, standing to attention and saluting. "You should go now sir."

"Good luck," Jack said, and he left quickly.

John walked over to the nearest console and pressed a button to open a city wide broadcast.

"Attention, all personnel. We will be returning to the Pegasus Galaxy. The Wraith are still a plague on the human population, and our off world allies have been alone for nearly a year. But, it is time to go home, so if you could all make your way to your designated areas, we will be back in no time at all."

There was a round of applause from the people in the control room.

John finished the announcement and turned to Amelia. "Has General O'Neill's Jumper left the city?"

"Yes, sir. He is well on his way," she replied, checking her screen.

"Well I think it's time to fly," John said, and he quickly left them but called loudly, "Put Woolsey somewhere out of the way and lock the door!"

The Chair Room was empty when he arrived. The moment he sat in the chair, it activated, glowing bright blue and reclining. John could feel the power of the entire city ship coursing under his fingertips, and he could sense every person within it. All its systems were available to him.

With the city just outside of San Francisco, he had to be very careful to avoid detection. The ZPM was utilised for powering the stardrive and inertial dampeners whilst the other generators were currently powering the cloak to prevent it being discovered. The noise would be very loud, but he knew that USAF would come up with some excuse. The ship's powerful engines raised the great city out of the ocean slowly. He increased the power gradually and began bring them higher into the sky.

He became aware of alarms in his mind. It was warning him that he needed to activate the shield as the city's structural integrity would be severely compromised if they went further, not to mention he was aware of the rise of temperature on the towers and piers.

The moment he was over the cloud bank, he transferred from cloak to the shield, which drew on more power and activated the full power of the stardrive. The city punched out of the atmosphere with a grace that could not be matched by any vessel in the known universe.

Once the city was out in space, John received automatic telemetry and proximity alerts on the observation display. There were five ships in orbit around the Earth: Daedalus, Apollo, Odyssey, George Hammond, and Sun Tzu. The Apollo powered up their sublight drives and accelerated towards the city.

"This is Colonel Ellis of the Apollo. Atlantis, why have you left Earth? We have received orders to advise you to return to the Planet," came a voice over a short range broadcast that was shielded from the other ships.

John ignored them and tuned out the communications that were being sent at the city. He had to admire the lengths that the IOA were going to as the Hammond opened fire with its plasma beams. John knew that Sam was commander of that ship, but the sensor readings told him that she was not using full power and had targeted areas of the shield that covered empty space.

He then diverted all power to the stardrive, and using more power, a hyperspace window ripped open in front of them. They plunged directly into it, travelling at speeds that even the Odyssey with its Asgard Core and ZPM would not be able to match.

Whilst flying in hyperspace, the city required a constant presence in the chair, and the position was mentally taxing and would require a change over, but the only possible replacement was Doctor Becket, who had the necessary aptitude and concentration for flying the city.

Rodney had told him that even the Ancient Altera would require a change in pilot.

The city was alive in his mind. He received a direct feed of the ship's data and condition. He could sense the power being drawn from the power devices, feel that power being transferred through the power conduits into the ships systems. The strain on the shield was high, but he was not worried about it. His concern rested with the inertial dampeners on one of the piers as he could feel a fault in one of them. He sent a team to begin repairs.

They had managed to travel the great length of the Milky Way in less than a day. They were an hour away from the galactic void where the Midway station had once sat. John was fatigued and needed to swap with Carson. Whilst sitting in the chair, the body fell into a form of slumber, which Rodney had explained was to reduce the number of rotations of crew. He was about to call for Carson to relieve him when he noticed that Rodney was coming towards him in great haste.

It surprised him as all of the scientists were using the trip to study the technology in greater detail as they had never used it to fly such a great distance. Rodney was monitoring the system to make sure they did not damage a system or expend too much power.

John opened the door to allow Rodney enter.

"Sheppard!" Rodney called, racing into the room. "I just realised something."

"What, Rodney?" John asked, annoyed and hoping that he could leave the chair soon.

"The Tria!" He replied with the look of a child at Christmas.

"What about it?" John asked in confusion, thinking back on the Ancient Lanteans who had been found on the ship.

"At this very moment, it is sitting in the void between the two galaxies, an Ancient warship that is not of use to anyone," McKay said excitedly. "We should drop out, land the Tria on a pier, and then continue to Pegasus. We could study the ship and hopefully be able to reverse engineer the ship's technology. Imagine the advances that we will make with an actual ship to study."

John didn't say a word, but as his thoughts focused on the ship, Atlantis brought up the ship's last known location and calculated that it was only an hour away. Atlantis could use a second ship in the coming months. "Well, I do not see a problem with that."

The City dropped out of Hyperspace for a moment before opening another window and going back into Hyperspace to reach the ship.

An hour and thirty minutes later, the Tria was safely docked on the east pier. After a landing system had initialised, the ship had passed directly through the shield much like the Pegasus Asgard had once done. The ship had initialised a program that plotted its descent onto a pier. The program was recognised by the city, and docking clamps rose up out of the pier and attached to the ship.

John sealed off all access to the pier and returned the city to hyperspace towards their destination. Once they were underway, he righted himself in the chair and summoned Becket to the chair room, and they swapped places.

For the last leg of the journey, Becket flew the city to the system that Atlantis would call home. The journey had taken them just over two days. The city's hyperdrive was the fastest drive known to Earth.

Once inside the new system, the city began to decelerate. A planet was growing closer. The planet was composed of a vast ocean on which the City had once called home for thousands of years.

John piloted Atlantis into a geosynchronous orbit over the planet that now dwarfed the city-ship. He began the next stage of the descent: re-entry of the planet. Flying an entire city was a lot harder than flying an F302, and he was forced to concentrate hard.

"Sheppard!" Rodney called over the intercom, "You need to slow us down. We are coming in way to steep, and it is burning up power that we will need later."

John had to bite back a sharp remark but sent an extra burst of power to the drives and slowed their decent. The friction on the shield was reduced, and they were burning less power. The city levelled out, and the great fireball that had been created by the friction dissipated. The city flew over the ocean below. The stardrive was still powered up, and John began to decrease the power, and the city lowered itself into the water.

The landing was far superior to their previous ones, and John was rather proud of it. Once the city had settled on the ocean surface he deactivated the shield and activated the sensors of the city. The city began to deactivate the flight systems, and the power levels entered acceptable levels. The lockdowns that he had implemented were also removed, allowing the people on the city to freely move.

When he was certain that his job was finished, he sat up in the chair, and the blue light died.

"Rodney, how much power did we use?" he asked, walking out of the chair room and tapping into the radio.

"Power was drained from all three ZPMs, but we only used 40% of the maximum power," Rodney explained happily. "The generators we installed have reduced our power requirements, but I would guess that they will have been heavily drained."

"Good" John said. He walked into the Stargate operations centre, where most of the expedition personnel were standing. "I want fifteen Atlantis Reconnaissance teams sent out to make contact with our off-world allies and trading partners. I want to know what has happened since we left."

"What about Earth?" asked Lorne.

"We do not communicate with them until we know it is safe. O'Neill will tell us when that is," he explained firmly, not wanting any argument. "For now, we are independent."

"Like we were in our first year with Weir in charge," Chuck said sadly

"But we are better prepared," John said encouragingly, "let's hope we do not wake anything else this time 'round. Now, Ronon, you should go find Teyla. She should be on New Athos. Becket can fly you there in a 'Jumper"

They left the room quickly, and John turned around to look at everyone. He walked over and pressed a button, opening a city wide channel,

"As of today, we are on our own. I will not lie to you. Our departure was not entirely authorised, and there will be repercussions, but it is my hope that we can push the wraith back and reduce their numbers to the point of defeat like we have done for the Goa'uld and the Ori and even the replicators. Doctor Weir brought us here with the hope that we would meet the Ancients and discover the wonders of Atlantis."

"We met an ascended Ancient Lantean, and we met the Ancient Lanteans of the Tria. We discovered the city, but as they seeded species of the Ancient Altera and the children of the Ancient Lanteans, it is time for us to ascend from the simple humans of Earth to the Lanteans of Atlantis. This is our home, and we will protect it! We will succeed where the first Lanteans failed. We are back on Lantea, the planet where it all began, and we shall not stop until the Wraith are no more."

A round of applause sounded across the city, and the people agreed with their leader, but it was short lived as Richard Woolsey came walking into Stargate Operation, looking angry.

"The IOA never agreed to this," he said sternly.

"Mr Woolsey," John said with delight, "I see you have gotten straight to the point."

"Who gave the order to return Atlantis to Pegasus? It was agreed by the IOA that the city would not return but be decommissioned!" Woolsey exclaimed, and he pointed at a technician. "Dial the SGC now!"

"Ignore that order," John commanded, "Woolsey, you are no longer in command of this city. I am. You are only here as a negotiator and diplomat. You are here at my discretion and so as to not alienate the IOA. If and when we re-establish links to Earth, then you can report everything I have done."

"You cannot do this!" Woolsey exclaimed, "you will have undone all the work we did with the IOA when we were on Earth."

"I think you will find I already did," John said, "now I have to re-establish contact with our friends, and I am sure we will need your help. You can either help, or you will be confined to your quarters indefinitely."

Woolsey stood for a long moment and seemed to steel himself but did not move.

"Good," John said grimly, "I am sending you as an envoy to the Coalition of Planets. We should announce ourselves to them."

"Very well," Woolsey said, "When do I leave?"

"The moment you have changed into Atlantis personnel uniform," he said, and he walked away, laughing at Woolsey's face as he looked down at his suit.

**/************************************************\**

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_Edited:__ June 2016_

_Beta__: _The Avid Musician

Authors Note: Slowly getting through them all :)

**/**********************************************\**


	4. Chapter 4

The Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Four**

**Seeds**

In the hours since the City had touched down on the oceans of Lantea, the Expedition members were busy getting back into the swing of the Pegasus Galaxy. The teams that John had sent off world had brought back disturbing news: the Wraith that the _George Hammond_ had detected when it had travelled to Pegasus to return Teyla had been culling many worlds.

A number of their off-world contacts were very angry with them, thinking that they had abandoned them to the Wraith. Many still thought of them as the Ancestors of old. Others thought that they had merely saved themselves. The teams had been forced to explain that they had been forced to return to their own Galaxy but that they were back now to help the people of the Galaxy.

The Gate within Atlantis had seen constant traffic with the teams returning to get trading supplies and returning to continue relations. The 'gate itself had changed back the moment the sensors had finished their sweeps of the Lantea System, and, detecting that they were back in the Pegasus Galaxy, the automated system changed the gate model again.

John stood at the window of what was now his office looking down at the activity that was going on through the gate room and operations. He smiled only three hours in. Atlantis was reintegrated itself back into Pegasus. Woolsey had been sent to the Coalition with an escort, but as a matter of precaution he had also sent a second team as backup in a cloaked puddle jumper. He didn't expect the meeting to be entirely friendly, but he was sure that in their absence the Genii would have tried to fill the void they left.

The gate lit up with an incoming wormhole, but the kwoosh was stopped by the shield.

He saw that the technicians looked surprised, so he walked out to operations to see what was going on.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Nothing, Sir. Doctor Becket is taking his time getting through the gate," Chuck said. "Teyla is coming through."

"Well, let's roll out the welcome banners," John said, smiling. He walked towards the stairs just as the 'jumper came through and began to ascend to the jumper bay.

When he arrived, Becket was just managing to land, and the rear compartment door was lowered. For the first time in months, John got to see Teyla. She had returned her clothing to her Athosian style. She looked good. On her hip was a small child that could only been Torren. He had grown a lot since he had last seen the boy who had been named after John.

"John!" Teyla said warmly and embraced him carefully to avoid squashing her son. "It is good to see you again, and I had not thought to see you or Atlantis back in this Galaxy."

"It is good to see you Teyla, and Torren too," John said as he tickled the little boy. "Let's just say that I did not agree with a decision, so I may have taken the city without the full approval of Earth."

"You stole the city?" she asked, shocked.

"Not entirely," John said, shrugging. "Doctor Becket, do you need anything?"

"I wouldn't mind some medical supplies. A number of the Athosians could use some of our treatments. Mostly they are in good health, but I would like to give them a thorough going over."

"That's fine. Where is Ronon?" he asked, looking for his large friend.

"He said that he wanted to see how his people were but said that he would return to New Athos in a few hours," Teyla said.

"Okay," John replied, "Becket, get back to New Athos and see the people. Now, Teyla, why don't we go downstairs."

They walked back down to operations, and Teyla was met happily. It took half an hour for them to get into John's office where she caught him up on the local news and rumours that she had heard. John also told her how the city came to be back in Pegasus and that he was now in charge of the entire city and expedition.

"John, you are a good person. You will make a good leader to your people. Elizabeth would be proud if she could see you now."

"Except that she is now floating in the harshness of space and is unable to do anything," he said bitterly. "Have I told you how much I hate the Asurans?"

"Many times," Teyla said, smiling. "And I noticed that you have also received a promotion in rank. You are a full colonel now."

"Yes, but I am not sure what my rank will be if I am brought back to Earth tomorrow," John shrugged. "I am the highest ranking military officer, but it doesn't matter as I am still the leader of the Expedition."

"So what is your plan for this Galaxy?" she asked.

"Well, I will be consolidating for the time being, and when I have my intel I will be able to plan the strikes against the Wraith. But for now, we have been gone too long to do any good, not to mention without the _Daedalus_ which should be on its way our recourses are limited."

"But I do have a proposition for you," John added, sounding hopeful.

"The Athosians were once welcome on Atlantis and the mainland. I would propose that this continue. You told me that your people have struggled and that many worlds fear you as they heard rumours of what happened with Michael. In exchange, we will give your people protection, and you will get the benefit of our medical treatment and housing that we will help you build on the mainland. In exchange, all we would need is a small amount of the harvest that your people would grow. The rest is for you to trade off world. You will also have use of the gate."

"What about security for my people and trade?" she asked, concerned for her people's wellbeing.

"Like I said, we will provide your people with a settlement and means of protection on the mainland. I understand your people are a trading people. You can have full access to cultivate the land. However, we will soon have three new vessels, which we can teach you to pilot, and you can continue your trade," John said, smiling. "They are not unlike the 'jumpers. They are easy to pilot, and they will enable your people to trade easier."

"You are giving us your vessels?" She asked, surprised.

"No," John said firmly, "but your people will be able to have use of them when they have need, but if needed, they will form a military function. Primarily, they are for transportation."

"I think my people would find that acceptable, but I fear that many will believe that we will be forced to relocate again," she said sadly.

"No" John said firmly, "I give my word that the Athosians will always be welcome on Lantea and in the city. The villagers can either remain farming and trading but some can if they choose join the Atlantis Reconnaissance teams or become part of the security teams."

"Might I also request a form of schooling for my people? Many still do not have a true understanding of the technology or sciences in use," she requested, "I myself sometimes do not understand."

John thought about it for a moment and realised that with the amount of scientists and other professionals in the city that was not unreasonable. "I think that can be arranged. We have enough geeks here to be able to teach your people something."

"You are kind to consider my people like this. I know that Dr Weir had hoped to keep our people together, but your people on Earth treated us with so much caution," she pointed out. "Will this not happen again?"

"No," John said firmly, "I will not allow it, especially when your people were stolen without our knowledge. I promise you that even when we are back in contact with Earth, you and your people will not be forced from my city."

"Will they not just send a ship to find you, or even dial the gate?" Teyla asked after a number of minutes trying to settle Torren.

"Rodney is looking for any subspace transponders and locators, so no ship will find us. Even if they send one, the city's Cloak will prevent our discovery. Even the Asgard technology cannot detect this city," John explained. "The gate has been programmed for now to prevent any intergalactic dialling, but even if they do connect, they will not be able to come through the shield."

"Well, I had better get back to my people," Teyla said. She placed Torren in John's arms. "Please, can you look after him until I return. I believe that on your planet you would be called a godparent to him."

John gave an almost terrified look at the small child, which made Teyla laugh as she left them. John looked like he was carrying a small bomb.

A number of days later, the Athosians had all been gated to Atlantis, where they had already begun to settle in. Their previous settlement had been entirely dismantled when they had left, and the fields that they had farmed had become overgrown and required a lot of work. But, the Athosians were happy.

John had set the engineers and architects the challenge of designing and planning the construction of a long term settlement. So far, he had not been disappointed in what he had seen on paper and in computer models.

The architecture proposed was entirely unique to the settlement. They were using a stone that they were sourcing from off world. It was stone enriched with a metallic element unique to Pegasus, which according to the Atlantis database was called 'Melonite' that could be molecularly fused together to create a strong structure. They would fit large glass windows with some stained glass design to match the City, but they would also use dark woods and other stones for other parts of the buildings. They hoped that the structures that were planned to be built would last many centuries, and expansion was also taken into account for the future into the very design.

The interior of the buildings matched the Athosians' own style with lots of woods and handmade furniture, furs and other such things that they were used to, but they would have some modern advances. Each building was fitted with electrical lighting and heating and modern plumbing. They would also have communications between the buildings and Atlantis.

The settlement would take time to build as they did not have all of the resources, but they could build the actual stone structure easily. The more advanced features would have to wait for the renewed connection with Earth to acquire materials.

Teyla's request for a school was also taking shape. Two large tents had been erected and two different schools were set up one to teach children. The other to teach adults and so far they had seen expanding numbers attending to learn, and it was hoped that once a school was built a true curriculum could be made.

Mr Woolsey had returned from the Coalition, and he had told John that they had not been happy to see him and were very angry at Atlantis. They believed that they had stolen the City of the Ancestors and abandoned them all to return to their own safe galaxy.

Woolsey had explained why it had necessitated in the city's temporary relocation, but they had now returned and they were determined to see the Wraith beaten. A number of them had not been accepting of their story and it was the Genii who had questioned their integrity the most.

It has taken some stern words from Woolsey to quieten the discord amongst the members, he had pointed out the advances they had that none in the coalition did, but the nail in the coffin had been informing them that the City of Atlantis had been built on Earth, the Ancestors had come from Earth and returned to Earth after they fled and to remind them that them that they were the children of the Ancestors.

Woolsey was settling in to his reviewed position and had a new office one floor down from Stargate Operations. He was still helping with all personnel issues, but John was still overseeing everything he did. He seemed to understand why John had done what he did but did not agree by the means he achieved it. A military commander would not last long as leader of the expedition; the international committee that sponsored the expedition would want a civilian not a military man.

A most startling discovery had come from a young graduate from England who had been sent by the British to be a part of the expedition. His name was Gordon Matthews, and he may have been young but was reported had one of the most gifted minds in Britain. According to the file that had been provided when he was assigned to the city, he had drawn the attention of the government while he was still in Cambridge University. He had been snapped up and given clearance to know about the Stargate and study advanced science theories and applications gained by the Gate.

John assigned Gordon to comb through the Atlantis database and mainframe to discover what program had been running while they had been on Earth. But, John had terminated the search when they arrived back on Lantea as the fragments of code left by the Program had made them worried. Gordon was efficient and had discovered that it had been a virus that would have destroyed the Atlantis Database if the city had not returned to Pegasus within another three months of when they left.

With the discovery of a Virus within the database John had called for an emergency meeting to discuss this revelation and why no one had found it earlier.

"Rodney, how did you not know that there was a deadline?" John asked, "and for that matter, how did you not know there was a virus in the computers?"

"Well, it was a buried program," Rodney said defensively, not liking that he was being held at fault for this situation. "When the city is relocated and automated sensors sweeps are carried out of the surrounding space, planet, and the city. Atlantis contained the entire repository of knowledge of the Ancients, and it has all the data from every system and galaxy they explored. The city would have been able to determine that it was on Earth and back in the Milky Way Galaxy, and when it detected this I believe that the Virus was activated and released into the mainframe and control systems."

"Sorry, Doctor McKay," Gordon interrupted nervously. "What you are saying about the city's capabilities is not wrong. However, the virus was not stored within the database. It was introduced to the database four days after the city came to rest in San Francisco, the same day as the first talks were held regarding the possible destruction and salvage of the city took place."

"What?" Rodney asked, taking the young man's tablet to check his findings. He was startled. "He is right. It was introduced after we returned to Earth."

"This was a good find, Mr Matthews," John said, "You have shown you are have an aptitude of searching through the database, something Rodney here had failed to do many times. Please continue to do so and see who entered this virus into the system."

"Yes, of course, Colonel," Gordon said, blushing. "I will get right on that."

Once he was out of the room, John looked back at Rodney. "Is it possible that that virus could have been planted into the database?"

"No. There are protocols in place that would have prevented it. Making amendments to the database requires an authentication code created by the Ancients, and it is something that we cannot crack. If we had it, we would have unfretted access to the database and everything it contains," Rodney explained. "You might be able to add a virus to the operating system, but not the Database. That is impossible and the Operating system resets every night, so it wouldn't last long."

"I want you to check in with Gordon between your other duties, and I want a list of possibilities. If someone has found a way to infect the database, I want to know who, and I want it protected from further intrusions," John ordered. "Now, let's get Beckett, Keller, Teyla and Woolsey here. We have a meeting to hold. Ronon is off world with Lorne. I will need to be available for their report after, and they are scouting a known Wraith stronghold."

**/************************************************\**

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_Edited:__ July 2016_

_Beta__: _The Avid Musician

Authors Note: I am finally going to have this story Beta'd so watch this space

**/**********************************************\**


	5. Chapter 5

The Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Five**

** Proposition**

Two months had passed, and Atlantis had begun to trade with their off world allies. Now, they were beginning to make small strikes against the Wraith. They needed to do more to combat the newly consolidated Wraith group that was continuously growing. John had a plan, and it all rested on the contents of a stasis pod in the bowels of the city.

Todd has been on Atlantis since it had travelled to Earth. He had remained in stasis the entire time as they were unable to meet his dietary needs. When they returned to Pegasus, John did not see the need to release him immediately. Now, he was glad he hadn't.

Surrounding the stasis chamber was an armed compliment of ten Atlantis security officers. John stood opposite the frozen Wraith who had on many occasions been an uneasy ally to them over the years.

John nodded to Becket and Keller, who were both the foremost experts on Wraith physiology. They stood at the ready. Becket deactivated the pod; the energy field withdrew, and Todd fell forwards slightly before catching himself and opening his eyes.

"John Sheppard," He said. "It is time for my execution already."

"Not today, Todd," John said. "You might be interested to know that we are now back in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"And why have you awakened me now?" Todd asked him, "by my estimation, I have been in stasis for nearly a year."

John frowned and wondered how Todd could know such a thing and wondered what else about Wraith biology they just did not know.

"I thought you might be interested in hearing about your former alliance," John said, shrewdly bating the Wraith, "Your former large alliance of hives and cruisers has been attacked by a new alliance of Wraith led by three Queens. I suppose if you do not care, I could put you back in the ice, or I could just kill you now."

Todd laughed. He bared his teeth and elicited the response of having more guns pointed at him, but John didn't move a muscle. "Who are these queens you speak of?" he asked. "What are their names?"

"According to our intel, which we have gathered from multiple worlds" John said, knowing that he had the wraith on the hook. Now, he just needed to reel him in. "They are called the Trinity Queens."

"Interesting," Todd hummed. "I have not heard that name since the last year of our war with the Ancient Lanteans. They dare to take the name of three of our greatest queens."

"So these are not the same queens?" John asked, looking for any information that could be helpful.

"No. The Trinity were killed in one of the bloodiest battles against the Ancient Lanteans," Todd said, reminiscing. "They were the first Queens of our kind and had been killed by the Great Lantean General Hippaforalkus the day he won the greatest victory over my people they had ever achieved, but that day had begun their downfall."

"Well, you should know that they have been attacking your old alliance, and all that remains are two hives and a single cruiser. They are losing without their commander here to guide them through the battles. So far, the Trinity has defeated and absorbed four factions of Wraith to their rule," John said. He saw Todd's eyes flare slightly in surprise as he spoke, but he was not sure what caused it. "They do not seem to like any wraith being outside their control."

"What is it you want from me?" Todd asked expectantly, knowing that his freedom wouldn't come free.

"I will release you on the condition that you return to your alliance and start to fight the Trinity Queens where possible," John said casually. "In exchange for your life, this is all we require."

"And what is to stop me from joining the queens?" Todd asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Well, you could, but we both know you will do no such thing. You wish to rule the Wraith without anyone lording over you," John countered, but he knew Todd well enough to know he wouldn't. "That is why you used Teyla to pose as a queen."

"You know that if you release me, I will feed on the humans of this galaxy," Todd pointed out.

"Yes, I do, and I can tell you that it repulses me, but you will at least leave some of the population of planets alive. These new queens cull the entire planet," John said. "Now, I would prefer you feed on your own kind. At least those you do not kill."

"You should also know that the gene therapy is still being perfected," Keller said, stepping forward. "I have had Carson help me when he can spare the time, and I am hopeful that we can remove the disease it gave you previously."

"The Hoffan Drug still infects nearly every planet in Pegasus. With each human you try to feed on, the risk to yourself grows greater," John said offhandedly, hoping to win the Wraith over. "Your enemies out number you ten to one, so they can stand to lose some of their number. You cannot."

"I will not subject myself to the transformation until it is perfected," Todd said firmly.

"It might go quicker if you gave us more information about your biology and that of the Iratus bug from which you partially evolved from," Keller said quickly. "If you no longer needed to feed, you would have a great advantage over other Wraith."

"Interesting. You seem to have thought this through," Todd said, considering the offer. "I will return to my Alliance, and I will send word when I have spoken to the Wraith under my command."

John nodded, and they escorted Todd to the gate room and dialled a gate on a world closest to where his alliance was hidden.

"Your people should find you in the next few days," John said from the bottom step as Todd stood at the event horizon waiting for them to lower the shield. "When you have your answer, go to this planet and activate the beacon we will place there. Atlantis will detect it, and we will meet you within a day or two."

One of the soldiers dropped a roll of paper on the floor, which Todd picked up and opened to see the gate symbols. He agreed to their terms. The shield was dropped, and Todd left through the gate.

It had taken only a week for Todd to get back in touch with them, and he agreed to an alliance between them and told them that he had his own scientists working on the gene therapy. He did give them a report that the Queens were growing new ships from a facility they had built, but Todd did not know where it was.

Daedalus had arrived in that time, and with it came three new vessels that had been built by the US Air Force to be cargo and transport ships. They had been code named CX:600 but were Interstellar-Cargo ships that had been built using a Puddle Jumper as inspiration. The design was clearly from Earth. The interior closely resembled an Earth long distance transporter lorry; they were equipped with ring transports for cargo as well as also an adapted beaming device like the one the Asgard had installed on the Daedalus originally but preventing their use with any weapons signatures.

The ship's programming was very complex as it was designed and written to prevent any unauthorized access, acquisition, or flight. It was fitted with shields developed at Area 51 that were to be fitted on the F302's and a Hyperdive based on a Goa'uld design but had been created from scratch using the superior knowledge of the Asgard drives to improve them. They operated only at interstellar distances, but they could still travel at good speeds.

The ship was equipped with a weapons system: two forward facing rail guns and a plasma turret on the belly that fired plasma bolts but would use up considerable power and so was only to be used as a last resort.

They were simple to pilot, but the more complicated systems required the Athosians to have training in their use. As a precaution, it was proposed that an Atlantis trained pilot would accompany all journeys, but only they would be able to operate the weapons systems, and to prevent unauthorised access they had an installed bio sensor that would only allow pre-programmed people using the ship.

John had taken a gamble with the designation of the Alpha Site and decided on the known planet of New Lantea where Atlantis had previously sought refuge after fleeing Lantea due to the Replicators. They renamed the planet Messaline, and the Atlantis personnel had been dispatched to begin the construction of a new facility.

Taking inspiration from Stargate Command and Icarus Base, they were building the facility directly into a mountainous plateau for the facility's own protection. Using Daedalus and the Interstellar-Cargo transports, they were able to ship materials and tools to build the facility as the planet had not been given a gate yet.

Construction of the Alpha site took time with the lack of ship availability. There was always a shortage of supplies, but it was also a dangerous planet due to the indigenous snake-like creature, and to date there had been two incidents involving the creature and the construction teams.

John was not stupid. He knew it was incredibly risky having Atlantis back on Lantea and having the Alpha Site on Messaline, and if a ship was sent to Pegasus, they would check these planets first. While Atlantis could cloak itself, the Mainland Settlement on Lantea and the Alpha Site would be detected by the ships.

So, in order to protect the two construction projects and for future defence purposes, he had a new defence technology researched and developed. The final result was a new shield relay generator with a built in cloaking matrix, which could be interfaced with any power source for use on the ground and structures. The Science Division had done a great job building the first prototype, and the tests performed by Daedalus had shown that the cloaking device worked well enough but would need some further enhancements.

Atlantis' new society was not yet completed, and John had one more race of humans that he wanted to locate. That meant he needed to leave the city for a time, and there was only one person he could leave in charge temporarily.

Teyla, as she was not often going off world anymore due to being a mother and because she had stood in for a leader of the Expedition a number of times, was the best person. She was also a highly respected resident of Atlantis even though she was not from Earth.

So, with Teyla in temporary command, he took one of the cargo ships and took off after the evasive people. They had not been seen or heard from for many months. It had taken him a week to find any sign of them but had managed to find a planet with whom they traded for food. The townspeople had been reluctant to speak with him, and he respected that they kept their secrets, so he left a subspace communicator with them to pass on to their trading friends.

He had left the planet with the intent of travelling to another possible planet that could have what he wanted when the ship's communications system came to life as it detected a subspace message from the communicator he had left.

"Sheppard, I hear you are looking for me," said a female voice that John recognised immediately.

"Larrin, are you hiding from me?" he asked with a smile, knowing how much she liked to antagonise him.

"What do you want, Sheppard?" she asked in a bored voice

"To talk. We have been gone a while, and I wanted to reconnect with my friends," he said carefully.

"You have been out of this galaxy for some time. The Wraith have been culling worlds again with no one to protect them. We have been hard pushed to survive. Three of our ships have been damaged heavily in fights," she said sounding angry.

"Well, then, I think you will like what I have to say," John said, and he opened up a program and brought up the co-ordinates for Atlantis, which he sent through subspace directly to her ship. "I just sent you the location of Atlantis. Meet me there, and we can discuss something that will benefit the two of us."

"Fine. I will be there in three hours," she said and ended the communication.

John couldn't help but smile to himself. She was a very powerful and formidable women, and he couldn't help but like it.

It took him just two and a half hours to get back to the city. He landed the ship on the east pier where Tria was docked. Scientists were working every day to try and repair the ship, but the hyperdrive was near irreparable.

All systems other than the hyperdrive were operational, but its drone supply was nearly entirely depleted. There was one piece of technology that they were working on reverse engineering: a Control Chair built by humans. The Wraith attack on Earth had destroyed the chair from the Antarctic Outpost, which meant that the outpost was now useless. John hoped that if they developed a new chair interface, they would be able to gain goodwill when they re-established contact with Earth.

They had made some advances in shield theory. The Ancients were the first to create shield technology, and they were some of the most superior in the known universe. Even Destiny, one of the oldest examples of Ancient Alteran ship design, was equipped with shields capable of protecting the vessel from the intense power of a star.

Using this information, they had looked into the Atlantis database and discovered two types of shield technologies used by the Ancients for millennia. The most powerful of their shields were the City-ship variant that were impenetrable as long as it had sufficient power, but ships were given shaped shields that contoured around the hull, and they allowed for better velocity speeds and improved protection.

The work on Tria had also revealed that some of the Aurora-class ships had more weapon systems than they had originally thought. At various locations on the hull, there were weapons turrets that fired powerful energy bolts for anti-aircraft fire, but they were also equipped with a primary energy beam cannon. It was a variant on the satellite weapon and the Atlantis weapon turrets technologies, but the ship variant was more compact and less powerful but was still stronger than the Asgard Plasma Beam batteries.

They named this new ship-based weapon the Grodin after the British scientist who had been killed using the satellite weapon. However, the downside to this weapon was that it required a ZPM to power it (unlike the satellite), and they currently did not have one to spare. Yet, they were still researching the weapon in the database.

The ship would cause complications when Larrin saw it as she would demand the ship for her people, but he would have to deal with that when it came up in their talks, and he had no intention of handing the ship over to anyone.

He travelled straight to Stargate Operations. As he stepped out of the transporter, his attention was called immediately.

"Colonel Sheppard, we may have a situation," Chuck called urgently.

John walked over to see that he was looking at the long rang sensors. "I take it we have a visitor?"

"Yes. We have been following this ship for the last three hours. It seems to have followed you from the last planet you visited and will be here in roughly twenty minutes, but sensors are identifying the vessel as a Traveller Generational Ship," Chuck said. "Is that who you were looking for?"

"Yeah," John replied. "The Athosians are cultivating the mainland, providing food, and soon they will begin to develop again as an advanced race. The Travellers, I hope, will be one of our other allies."

John didn't explain further but walked back to his office and pulled out a folder with information he had been preparing for this very meeting. Zelenka had the most knowledge of their ships capabilities and had proposed a number of upgrades that they could provide them.

He set up the briefing room for the meeting. Gone was Woolsey's monstrosity of a desk. Instead, they had brought back the Atlantis high council seating. Rodney and Zelenka were waiting as the scientists who would carry out any possible repairs and upgrades. Woolsey was there because he handled all negotiations and diplomacy, and Teyla and Doctor Keller were there.

When the ship arrived, it took them ten minutes for them to be escorted to the meeting room. She looked eager for the meeting and happy to see them again.

"Shall we take a seat?" Woolsey said, indicating the seats on the other side of them.

"I was surprised to hear from you, Sheppard; we believed that you had abandoned this galaxy," Larrin accused.

"A Wraith vessel was being powered with an Ancient Lantean power source and managed to locate our home planet in another Galaxy. We were forced to return to protect our home, but our place is here in Pegasus, "John explained. "I got the city back here so that we could continue our fight with the Wraith."

"What does that mean for my people?" she asked with interest. "Why am I here?"

"Colonel Sheppard is in command of our expedition, and he has the following proposition for you and your people. We would ask for the support of your vessels in the battle against the wraith," Woolsey stated. "In the spirit of co-operation and as a show of good faith, we are willing to repair your own vessel and remove the many years of patches and cannibalism of the systems."

Larrin's eyes brightened. "That is quite the proposal, but for us to even consider it, we would require the Lantean warship that we saw docked on your city."

John smiled to himself at her predictability.

"Unfortunately, the vessel you speak of is not part of our deal," Woolsey explained firmly. "That ship is not operational and will not be for some time. However, if you agree, we may be able to share any advances that we make as we study the technology."

"What will you wish of my people?" Larrin asked, "We are not soldiers."

"No, but you are the only race in Pegasus with vessels that can fight the Wraith other than us. We would like for your ships to act in support of ours and to help this city," John explained. "The ships will remain the property of the Travellers, and your crew will still command them, but I would be happy to station some of my people with yours in the attacks. We would like to count on you as allies in our fight and to fight shoulder to shoulder with us."

Larrin sat quietly; her two officers remained silent, deferring to her judgement,

"As you know, I am not the leader of my people. I cannot make this decision without speaking to my leadership, but I will take this to them," she said in a resigned voice. "Your plan risks our ships, the ships that carry my people and keeps them safe. They are our homes. I cannot risk the ships or endanger my people."

"You began to settle onto planets before. You could do so again," Woolsey pointed out.

"We could, but our first attempt in centuries ended with the destruction of the Stargate and the destruction of our own Lantean warship," she pointed out. "Something that your people had a hand in causing."

John sat for a moment quietly. The meeting was going just as he thought it would, and now it was time for him to make the offer he hoped would be a deal breaker. "You may not have seen it from your ship, but we have a settlement on the mainland here. Your people could be free to live there, freeing your people from being on the ships that could help protect them from the Wraith."

"You would allow settlement on your own planet?" she asked, surprised.

"My people are already on the mainland," Teyla said. "We would welcome your people as neighbours."

"It could work," one of the officers said. "Our people would be safe while we fight the Wraith, and our population could grow."

"It could," Larrin said, and she turned to Doctor Keller. "Would we have access to your medical staff?"

"Yes, of course being here, you would have full access to our medical care. Doctor Becket is also helping many of our off world contacts, but we have planned to build a clinic on the mainland, too. That will be staffed to help the Athosians," Keller said. "And, of course, if you wanted, we could also teach you our medical science."

"My people have also began to be taught by the people of Atlantis to further our understanding of the universe. We could give your people the same," Teyla added. John knew that she was happy that her people had embraced them and what Atlantis had to offer. She and Kanaan were joint leaders of her people, and both had noticed that the Athosians were much happier.

"I think we can agree, but it would dependent on the disclosure of further Lantean technology. We have needed new ships for three generations. We would like to be able to build some new ones."

John sat silent. He had not been expecting that demand, but there was merit in it.

"We do not currently have the resources to build a shipyard, but we, too, could have use for one. I tell you what in addition to all we have asked and promised, we would need your people's help with construction and mining of raw materials, but eventually, we would be able to build a joint shipyard."

"This alliance has potential for both of us," Larrin said in agreement. "I understand that you will not give us the technology that you have in your own vessels. However, we had access to a Lantean Warship, and we know how to use some of its technology."

"We do not have the means to produce any of the weapons, shields or propulsion technology," Zelenka said. "But if we were to build a facility for ship building, we could offer more, but it will take time to reach that aim. For now, this is what we propose to do to your ships."

Rodney and Zelenka went through the presentation, explaining what they would give them. They planned to repair all of the hull deterioration and power conduits as well as improving their hyperdrive technology with upgrades to the system and the hardware. They would also overhaul most of the ships current systems.

"I would also point out that with the majority of your people on the mainland and in the city, this will free up space for cargo hold for the construction materials. It will allow more space for power generation and other technology," Rodney finished, showing a final slide of a fully functional and repaired ship.

"However, we would need to install some of our advances into your ships like our beaming technology and sensors, but they would require one of our people to act as advisor to our technology. But, like I said before, your captains would remain in command. We would only be there to help," John said quickly, knowing that their ships would need some of their technology. He wasn't giving it freely, and he wouldn't allow them the most current models. "Then, if we give you any further technologies, we will still be at hand to help and make sure your crew can use them."

"I will speak to the governing council," Larrin agreed, "But, whilst I agree with this plan, they may not."

John nodded, and they shook hands. They were escorted out of the city back to their ship, and Atlantis hoped that they had gained another ally.

**/************************************************\**

**Review** \- **Favourite** \- **Add to Communities**

_Edited:__ July 2016_

_Beta__: _The Avid Musician

Authors Note: This is a new Beta chapter, so enjoy!

**/**********************************************\**


	6. Chapter 6

The Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Six**

**Long Distance Call**

It was early morning on Lantea, and the great city had barely woken from the night. John had barely slept for the last week. He had started to have dreams that were plagued with troubling images and scenes that he struggled to remember when he woke, but he felt dread in his stomach and would wake in a cold sweat.

Today was a day like any other for John. It was four in the morning Lantean Local Time, and he couldn't get back to sleep, so he had a shower and dressed in his uniform and made his way out of his quarters towards his office in the control tower.

When he had been on Earth planning with General O'Neill for him to take the city under his command and run it as leader of the Atlantis Expedition, he had never thought how taxing the position would be, but he tried to emulate Carter and Elizabeth, who had coped well in his position in the past.

His plan for the city and the expedition was still bearing fruit, but he had not heard back from the Travellers or Larrin about his proposition. He wondered if they would turn him down. He would be disappointed if they didn't join them. It was a mutually beneficial partnership, and he needed them as much as they needed him and the city.

When he arrived in operations, he saw the skeleton staff that manned the stations during the nightshift and nodded in greeting to them.

"Anything to report, or is all quiet?" he asked.

"Nothing untoward, Sir," Evan Johnson reported, "The sensors did pick up two Generation Ships travelling to a location that was outside their range about an hour ago."

John frowned for a moment, it was not unusual to see one of the traveller ships on the sensors, but two at the same time was odd. He shrugged; it was Traveller business.

John left Evan and entered his office, booting up his computer to begin working through the reports he had been sent by the off world mining teams. It was tedious and mind numbing, but he had to do it. He realised that as usual they needed more tech and people to get the job done.

The City had a large compliment of people, but the demand constantly grew. Even with the Athosians helping, they still had issues. It was one of the reasons why they needed the technologically advanced travellers to help with machinery and other sciences that were beyond the understanding of the Athosians.

As John worked in his office, the sun rose over the city, more people got to work throughout the halls, and the off world teams began to be dispatched or otherwise returned to report in. By ten O'clock John finished his reports, one of which was the official daily record for the city that would be used when he established contact with Earth again.

He had created a routine on the city. Every few days he would take a walk through the city to inspect the various departments and speak to their respective heads and get an update on their projects.

It was a routine he had made to cut down on the need for meetings and to get to know his staff better. It was something that he had learnt from Elizabeth: to know the people under you and know something small about them personally allows for better working relationships and respect. It was something the General Carter had also done in her tenure that Woolsey had failed to do.

Richard had been a very corporate and professional leader, but his reliance on meetings and formal sit downs were constricting and left much to be desired even after he acclimatised to the way things were done on the city. John tried not to emulate him much.

One of his last inspections was that of the mainland settlement, and it was a daily occurrence for him to take a Jumper out of the city and check on the progress of the construction and visit the Athosians. It was often the highlight of his day to visit them. The Athosians were always welcoming, and he enjoyed talking with them, but he especially liked visiting Torren, much to his surprise.

Teyla had sprung the little boy on him one afternoon and left John looking like he was holding a grenade, but he eventually grew accustomed to the boy and liked looking after him.

When on the mainland, he would often help with the building work or even with the harvests and farming. It allowed him time to think and escape command for a while, but it also showed the people that he was not removed from them. He wanted every man and woman on Lantea to pitch in for the common good of their new society. The Athosians were very happy with the arrangement as they felt a part of something whereas their previous tenure had made them feel isolated.

"Colonel!" someone shouted.

John put down the large heavy crate and turned to see Jinto running towards him.

The boy had grown to be almost as tall as his father over the years and was currently spending most of his time in the school tents, but he also spent time learning how to be a communication technician and hoped to get a job in Atlantis when he was older.

"What is it, Jinto? Has Wex gotten lost somewhere?" he asked, remembering a time when they had caused trouble in the city.

"Atlantis just radioed for you. You are needed right away," He said quickly.

"Right. Tell Kennan that I have been called away," John asked and left quickly.

He dashed back to the edge of the mainland where an open space was left for the Jumpers to land. He walked up the ramp and took a seat. With a slight mental direction, the small vessel powered up, and he opened a channel to the city.

"Atlantis, this is Sheppard. Report."

"Colonel, this morning Evan Johnson detected two Generation ships travelling on the outer edge of our sensor range," Chuck reported immediately, "they went out of range after a few moments, but it looked like they were heading in the same direction."

"I spoke to Evan this morning, and he informed me of his findings" John said, wondering what was so urgent. He was already aware of this and wondered if Chuck had just taken his shift and had not found an official report sent to him.

"Oh, I see," Chuck said. John could hear his surprise. "The sensors have detected the ships on a direct path to Atlantis. They are on their way."

John sighed, disappointed. Larrin was coming to give their decision in person, and two ships meant that the answer was a no.

"Understood. When will the two ships arrive?"

"Within the next six hours," Chuck said. He paused, "But it is not just two ships. We are detecting fourteen ships travelling towards the city."

"Fourteen?" John questioned disbelievingly.

"Yes, Sir. It looks like the entire Traveller Fleet is on its way."

"Well, what do you know. Seems Larrin came through for us after all," John smirked happily, "and you're certain it's the Travellers? We wouldn't want to be caught off guard by Wraith ships."

"No, Sir. The city has identified them as Traveller ships. What shall we do?"

"Nothing. Just keep an eye on them. When they arrive, let me know," John instructed and flew the ship back to the city. He went to his office and brought up the data on his own computer to know how long he had before tapping his earwig. "Radek, McKay, we have fourteen large guests on their way, and I will bet they will want work started almost immediately. You know how impatient they can be."

"Fourteen?" McKay exclaimed, "They have fourteen ships!"

"They would have had more if they hadn't been destroyed," John sighed and knew that a long negotiation would be happening very soon. "Something they will probably remind us of, but they might actually have a few more kept hidden. They are a cautious people. I would in their position."

"We should have them land on the mainland. We can use some of them to power the settlement. They will act as temporary homes until they can build some," Rodney suggested. "I hope you told them that it will take us time and resources to get them all fully operational."

"You were there when I made the deal, Rodney," John said, rolling his eyes and knowing his friend just had to complain about something. "Rodney, you can arrange for a team of our engineers to patch the ships on the mainland into the power grid there."

John got back to work planning the next strike against a known wraith outpost. The plan was to attack using both _Daedalus_ and Generation ships. They had received no communication for weeks from Todd, but they believed he was still active in a remote corner of Pegasus.

He was in the middle of a respite in the form of a sparring match with Teyla and Ronon with the jo staffs when his radio crackled to life.

"Colonel, the Travellers have just dropped out of Hyperspace and are entering the atmosphere," Chuck reported.

John ducked a sneaky blow from Ronon, who had used the opportunity to attack and grabbed his radio.

"Get them all to land on the mainland outside of the settlement and away from the farmlands. We will have to arrange for them to settle in, and some can transfer to the city but under limited access for now. I will be in Operations in about fifteen minutes."

**o-0-o**

The integration of Traveller society with the Lantean Society had gone very smoothly. The governing elders who controlled the Travellers were happy with the terms and hoped that they had a lasting relationship.

Work began on one ship to begin with, but the others were also used to gather the necessary materials to build new homes on the mainland for the Travellers to make use of instead of their ships. Earth, Athosian and Traveller peoples were working hard and in total cooperation to get the settlement built, and it was progressing rapidly.

The Athosians had welcomed their new neighbours with open arms just as they had the people of Earth all those years ago. They began to teach the Travellers about the land, how to farm, and other such skills that the Travellers had never needed in the past on their ships.

However, most of Travellers who chose to live in the settlement were families with young children or the elderly. The rest of the society were being trained further by Ronon for Atlantis missions or on rotating service on the _Daedalus_ and/or their own ships.

With more available ships, they had been sent out into Pegasus to fight the Wraith with the _Daedalus_. The remainder were left on the mainland, used to help transport mined materials, or to transport and scout possible planets for further expansion.

The city was returning to life quickly, but things were not without their scares. Twice, Wraith vessels had arrived in the Lantean system but had never approached the planet. They scanned the planet but due to the successful use of a jumper's cloaking mechanism patched into the travellers' ships' shield emitters, they were able to cloak the mainland settlement and the city to avoid detection.

The Settlement's shield relay emitters' construction was also underway with seven of the twelve built and connected to the settlement power distribution stations. They were using shield technology based on the city-shield, which were very powerful, but it was reliant on power. Currently, power was supplied to the emitters by the grounded Generation Ships.

One such occasion where the city had been in fear of detection had been when the long range sensors had detected a ship travelling through hyperspace directly to Atlantis. Based on the sensors, it was an Earth ship.

John had the _Daedalus_ and the active Generation ships leave the system and get just outside of the Earth ship sensor range to prevent detection. None had been too happy with his decision, but when he pointed out that they were not out of range for Atlantis to contact them, they soon fell quiet.

The ship was an hour away from the System, and the control room was abuzz with activity. Teams reported for duty, all on high alert, and John watched from the balcony as they went about their business. He was about to return to his office when he saw Rodney bouncing about erratically below.

"Rodney! What is it?" John called to him.

"Well, I just thought: they have a ring transporter aboard. It's standard equipment on Earth ships! They might think to try them!"

"Well deactivate them now!" John exclaimed, "Why are you waiting around here?!"

"Even if they are deactivated, they can be accessed if they use theirs to seek the nearest rings to lock onto," Rodney explained, "SG-1 used this many times to enter cloaked ships."

John paused and thought about that. He had read nearly all of the SG-1 reports over the years. They were good to read before bed, and they were better than most books and always full of action. One of those reports stood out to him now.

"Those transport rings, don't you have to be in close proximity?" he asked, "they cannot use them from one side of the system to get to the other, could they?"

"No, you have to be relatively close. Why? What are you thinking?"

"Sink the city," John said simply.

"Sink it?" Rodney asked, shocked, but that quickly changed. He looked thoughtful as he clicked his fingers and darted towards the consoles above him.

John followed him and met him at one of the consoles where Rodney had pushed in to gain access and was bringing up some form of data that John didn't understand.

"We are not in the optimal position to submerge the city. We will need to move the city to the correct location and then go down, but you are right. In theory, their rings shouldn't be able to pierce the ocean above the city."

"Where do we need to be?" John asked, "does it matter where we go down?"

"Well, of course, it matters! This city is buoyant. It floats on the surface without any help from technology. To stay affixed to the sea bed, it needs to use underwater clamps that the Ancients used all those years ago. It was those which released us when we first arrived," Rodney said, rolling his eyes, "Now the problem is: I have no idea what sort of condition it is in since we last used it. We powered the engines directly over it, and it may have been damaged."

"Well, we have less than an hour to get this done. Get moving!" John ordered. He left for the chair room.

He sat down in the chair, and he became the city, or that was how it felt. It was thousands of years old, home of millions over the years since its creation, lost beneath the waves and found again. She was a relic, an ark, a place of safety that had travelled the stars and had fought hard battles.

Atlantis was a beacon, a place of safety, a city that could be anywhere she chose and a place many could call home. John himself thought of Atlantis as his own home more than he had ever thought of any of his flats and houses on Earth.

A content feeling enveloped John, and he felt the city whisper into his mind that she was his. Her systems reaching out to him, every circuit reach to his synapses like a child reaching for its mother. The city had an ancient embrace. She had known so many pilots in her years, and he could feel each of those that had come before him, from the first who had flown Atlantis from Earth to Lantean, to the young boy who had sunk the city during their war and many others, one had even died in Atlantis's embrace.

An image came to him suddenly. He saw himself wearing a white uniform that had black armoured sections, and his hair was greying. He was sat in the chair that titled back, welcoming him and accepting his input.

This was where John belonged. Atlantis needed him. She needed his commands, but he did not reach out to dominate her but act as a conduit, a link through which the ship could be requested and piloted.

We need to submerge he said in his mind. The city heard his thoughts, and she reacted immediately by bringing up location of the docking clamps, which according to her estimates where an hour away.

He patched into the radio and called to Rodney, "Can I move the city across the ocean?"

The answer was yes. He knew it was. The city was telling him the answer even as he voiced the question.

"It shouldn't be a problem," Rodney said, "Just take it easy."

Nodding to himself, he closed his eyes and touched the conductive gel in each arm. Let's go he said to the ship. Together, they powered up the city engines, and she began to move through the ocean. They had no need of the shield or even the inertial dampeners, so the power requirements were minimal if they maintained a minimal output from the engines.

When they reached the site of the docking clamps, John reached through the city down into the depths and remotely connected to them. The city told him that they were in working order.

"Colonel, you will want to be up in Operations, won't you?" said a voice in an unmistakable Scottish accent.

"I would prefer to stay in this chair, Carson, but the needs of command mean I am needed elsewhere," John said sadly. He felt the city complain that he was relinquishing their connection, but she released him. The chair righted itself, and John stepped off the platform. The Doctor took his position while John went back to Stargate Operations.

"How is the mainland looking?" he asked as he stepped out of the transporter.

"The Hologram projectors are working," Amelia said, knowing what he was asking. "Lt. Colonel Lorne reports that all signs of the crop fields have been hidden under them, and everyone is within the settlement border."

The holograms had been a last minute addition to the mainland as their farmland stretched further than the cloaking could cover and could be easily discovered by an aerial survey, so they created a holographic projector, hurriedly scraped together using Ancient technology.

"Lorne, this is Sheppard," John said, patching into the long range radio in Operations.

"Go ahead, Colonel."

"Turn off all naquadah power production, and transfer directly to the ships generators. They should be less detectable as the Asgard have never accounted them," John said, "turn off all radios, and stop broadcasts of any kind."

"Understood. How will we know the coast is clear?"

"I will send a jumper over. You should know that when the city is submerged, we will be out of radio contact. You should keep one jumper online, and it will be able to communicate with the city on the secure coms, but wait for us to contact you."

"Do you think they are here on O'Neill's orders?" Lorne asked quickly.

"Yes. The ship would not be here unless on the Generals orders," John admitted, "But that does not mean that he wants us to reveal ourselves just yet."

With everything ready, John sent a short message to the fleet outside of their system before he gave the order to sink the city. Watching the city submerge was one of the strangest and most awesome sights that he had ever experience. He watched the city shield hold back the oceans of Lantea as they travelled down into the deep. The city settled itself in the circle of coral and silt that had formed while she had slumbered for a millennia, and the docking clamps engaged.

"Now, we wait," John said to everyone as they sat in the eerily greenish light that permeated the city from the ocean.

"We can set the city to slumber," Rodney said, and he pressed a few buttons on the console and parts of the city went dark. Eventually, only the central tower was illuminated. "That ship will not be able to detect us down here. The water will prevent their sensors from detecting the shield, and the shield will prevent them detecting the city."

"How sure are you of that?"

"Do you doubt me?" Rodney asked, aghast.

"Sometimes," John admitted before smirking and walking away, leaving Rodney looking after him in horror.

For the remainder of the time it took for the ship to arrive, everyone tried to keep busy, but everyone was watching the clock. Eventually, their impatience was rewarded when the sensors detected a hyperspace window open above the planet. Out of it came an Earth ship.

The _Apollo._

The moment the ship was out of hyperspace, John had the tower set to slumber. They were blind, but they were hardly defenceless. The city could be activated within a moment if needed. Using the active Jumper in the Gateroom, they monitored the information they were being sent by the mainland. From what they could tell, _Apollo_ under the command of Colonel Ellis was still in orbit, and it was performing a sweep of the planet.

The ship spent twenty minutes in the system before it began to power away from the planet. It looked like it was getting ready to make a hyperspace jump when out of nowhere the Gate activated, and one of the symbols lit up.

"McKay," John growled urgently

"What?! I couldn't have predicted this!" he exclaimed, looking at the gate for a moment as a second symbol lit up. "Block the event horizon. If it is blocked, the gate won't connect!"

John ran into the Jumper and activated its propulsion systems, backing it into the gate and setting it down on the floor.

"Won't the event horizon just destroy it?" Chuck asked, "That's what we did to Michael's."

But the gate failed to complete its dialling sequence as the wormhole was unable to establish. It deactivated.

"Rodney! The _Apollo_ is turning back!" Radek shouted. "The gate is giving off a subspace disturbance."

"Damn it!" Rodney cursed.

"What about the fleet?" Teyla asked, "They are a jump away. What if they jumped behind the planet?"

"A Generation ship?" Rodney considered, "they will need to jump directly into the atmosphere."

"Larrin is on her ship. She could do it," John said. He sat back in the Jumper and sent the message. Not two minutes later, a hyperspace window opened above the ocean, and a generational ship appeared and ascended out of the planet atmosphere.

It was not easy piloting a ship the size of the Generation Ship directly into the atmosphere of a planet. It took great control and skill but also precise coordinates for the hyperspace window, but Larrin was a very capable pilot.

Her ship had almost hit a part of the mainland before she was able to pull up out of a collision course and then pushed the ship hard to exit the atmosphere. It was not pretty, but she got the ship into a slightly decaying orbit. Her ship had not yet been given the repair, and its hyperdrive system was giving out warnings and radiation, but Larrin was happy. She had just shown John how good she could be.

On the screens, they saw the Sister ship to the _Daedalus_ come into sight, and they were immediately hailed.

"This is Colonel Ellis of the _USS Apollo_ to the Traveller Generational vessel. Please respond," Ellis ordered, "I recognise your ship from our previous encounters."

Larrin smirked. She never liked this man, and neither did John. She remembered the choice words he used to describe him.

"Open a channel," Larrin ordered, and she stepped forwards into the frame. They sent their own hail, "I am Larrin, Captain of this Vessel. Colonel Ellis, this is a surprise. I had heard that Atlantis had been stolen by your people."

The colonel paused, "The City was relocated to Earth due to the threat of the Wraith, but it was stolen from Earth by Colonel Sheppard, whom I believe you know."

"I came here looking for remnants of Ancestor technology. My people have not seen any sign of Lanteans since around the time you fled this galaxy to save your own planet," she said in a disdainful voice, "You wake the wraith and cause untold havoc only run with your tail between your legs."

"Well, you will have to excuse us. I have a number of possible locations for Atlantis, although if you hear anything, try to find us. You will be rewarded. I am aware that your ships are almost entirely made of paper clips and elastic bands, so we could really help you out," Ellis offered.

Larrin stood stone faced and didn't react. The man had no idea how wrong he was. John had made sure that her peoples ships would be repaired without the help of Earth, and even without repairs, the Atlantis technicians had been able to improve them with some minor work.

"Thanks for the offer, but my people do not need help from you or your Earth. You abandoned us before. I doubt your word is worth anything," Larrin stated, "Goodbye."

She ended the communication immediately and turned to the navigation officer, who was actually a military officer from Earth stationed aboard her ship. "Plot a course. They will follow us if they think we have something to hide."

"Of course, anywhere in particular?" he asked.

Larrin smiled evilly. "Let's make them regret following us but not causing lasting harm."

Back on the city, John watched as Larrin's ship jumped to hyperspace only to be followed by the _Apollo_. He was not sure what state Earth politics were in, but it was obvious that it was not the time to reveal themselves just yet.

After a week of cat and mouse chases across the galaxy, the Travellers managed to lose the _Apollo_, but the ship was still in the area, patrolling for Atlantis. With a little freedom returned to the city, they resumed gate activity, but they made sure that all off world teams used a series of gates before gating to Atlantis to prevent the address being discovered.

**Pegasus Galaxy – USS Apollo – Hyperspace**

Colonel Ellis sat in his chair on the bridge of his ship. His mission brief from General O'Neill had been simple. He had a maximum of two months to find Atlantis and have it returned to Earth as the IOA demanded.

He had set a course directly for Lantea. It was the most obvious place for the city to go, and he didn't think Sheppard would be that stupid to go there on New Lantea, but he had to start somewhere. Pegasus might be a dwarf galaxy, but there were hundreds of planets that he could have taken Atlantis.

When he had arrived over Lantea, he had probed the planet and found no trace of the large ancient city. He had probed the ocean surface for any disturbances that could mean the city was on the surface but cloaked, but he had found no sign of it.

They had been in the process of leaving the Lantean System when they had detected a subspace event on the planet and had turned back around to investigate. It had been a very brief disturbance, but it was enough to make them curious.

He was disappointed to discover that it was a mere Traveller Ship, captained by Larrin who he remembered from their war with the Replicators. He had followed her for a week across the Pegasus Galaxy, hoping to find a lead, but eventually they had lost her trail when she met with four of her fellow ships. They had been unable to identify her ship, and they had fled in different directions.

Instead, he had begun to systematically search worlds with large oceans where Atlantis could be. He had even gone to New Athos to find the Athosians but had found their settlement gone, and no trace of them remained.

He knew Atlantis was out here somewhere. He had sent teams down to planets where Atlantis was known to people and found tales of their travels and knew battles with the Wraith, but no one knew which world they resided on. The addresses they were provided led to other worlds.

Sheppard knew how to hide, and he was making sure they were not discovered.

This left a final option for _Apollo_: track the _Daedalus_.

After another week, they had detected four wraith vessels exchanging weapons fire with another smaller ship, and Colonel Ellis ordered for their immediate jump to the battle. They had finally found the _Daedalus_.

When they had arrived at the battle, they saw that three Hives and a single cruiser were fighting the lone Daedalus, but the wreckages of two cruisers and a hive floated dead in space.

"Maximum sublight!" Ellis ordered, "Activate the shields. Plasma weapons. We need to assist them. Then, we can find Atlantis."

Weapons fire rained down on the Wraith, who had not detected their approach. The plasma beams impacted one of the hives and cut through it. Some of their darts were diverted to attack them, too, and the F302 squadrons were released.

"Sir, _Daedalus_ is not responding to our hails," said the communications officer who had been trying to establish contact with their sister ship.

"Understood," Ellis said, and he watched as the Daedalus began to move away from the wraith, their own plasma weapons hitting each Wraith ship one after the other. "They are going to run but have taken shots to prevent the Wraith from pursing."

True to his prediction, once the Wraith ships' hyperdrive capabilities were crippled the Daedalus made a jump to hyperspace.

Apollo was unable to pursue as the Wraiths ships turned all of their attention to them and opened fire. Their shields flared, but they could not leave these wraith vessels out here where they could repair their ships and return to culling.

"Open fire with all batteries," Colonel Ellis Ordered gruffly, grinding his teeth in frustration. "Destroy these Wraith ships as quickly as possible. Major Bauer, try to keep track of the _Daedalus_. We need to follow her."

By the time they had destroyed all of the Wraiths ships, the _Daedalus_ was outside of their sensor range. After they had followed their known course, they have been unable to locate any sign of them.

Colonel Ellis had not been a happy man that day. He knew Atlantis was out there, but Colonel Caldwell and Colonel Sheppard where a step ahead of him. He needed to return to the Milky Way and report this to Homeworld Command.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

A month after _Apollo_ had caught up with _Daedalus_, Atlantis had a further scare a month later when an off world team discovered a bunker on what was supposed to be an empty wasteland planet. It took the team an hour to get into the bunker, but when they did they found the architecture resembled matched that of Atlantis. The facility used geothermal energy to power the machinery.

The team had explored the bunker and eventually stumbled on a room in which seven people were held suspended in a force field. When they entered the room, the field was disrupted, and the people had fallen to the floor and were unresponsive.

Doctor Becket had been called to the planet to take a look at the people, but he checked them for life signs. He declared them all dead. However, his touched did something that they had not predicted: it brought them back to life.

Or more correctly, it activated them.

They were not people at all but were seven Ancient-built Replicators, and the touch of the ATA gene had awakened their programming. Once activated, they tried to kill them.

The team had tried to fight them back, but the replicators were almost entirely indestructible and dangerous, killing two AR team members before they fled into the marsh surrounding the Bunker pursued by a single replicator while the others carried out some form of task.

Replicators were nothing if not persistence and clever, while the lone Replicator chased the AR Team, another went directly to the Stargate and dismantled the DHD preventing their escape. The team had been unable to call for help until they missed their four hour check in with Atlantis and they had dialled the planet and the team requested assistance so they sent the Daedalus to them.

However, what they had not known was that while they were running from the single replicator, the other six had been very busy. They had used the resources in the bunker and raw materials from the planet to start constructing either an Ancient Lantean Cruiser or a Asuran Cruiser, but it was still the same design.

The Replicators were fast workers, and they managed to build a large portion of the cruiser in less than twenty four hours. While it was not space worthy or indeed capable of moving, they had managed to create a weapons turret that immediately opened fire on the _Daedalus_ when it arrived, but the shields held. They deployed an improvised anti-replicator satellite built from the technology from a ARG weapon and a powerful amplifier that severed the bonds between the nanites of the replicators on the planet, including those that had been created to mine the planet's crust for materials.

With the planet now safe, a small expedition was sent to scout the remnants of what they now realised was a small Ancient Lantean Research and Development Outpost. This was where an Ancient Lantean had researched the Asurans in secret.

Atlantis, however, saw the potential of such a location and took the outpost as their own secure facility where they could study what remained. This was also a safe location for some of their own research that could endanger the city.

The bunker was incredibly secure and nearly undetectable once correctly secured. They also found further examples of Ancient technology to the south where the planet's surface showed signs of severe weapons bombardment. The subterranean bunkers survived, and they had no idea what the technology did yet, but it seemed to be an unfinished developing technology.

They had also received reports of humanoids in metal suits appearing on many worlds. People would disappear. Atlantis high command believed that this was the work of the renegade Asgard known as the Vanir, but they did not have the time or resources to track them down currently.

John stood outside the control tower leaning on the balcony that overlooked the city and the ocean, all of which was now under his command. It was a job he had never aspired to but had taken as it was required. It still felt odd to command the great city and the people of Earth, let alone the Travellers and Athosians who looked to his leadership.

Driving a desk, as General O'Neill called it, was not something he liked. In fact, he truly despised it and took every opportunity to leave the desk to visit the different teams and help with small projects, but so far he felt a great sense of accomplishment. He often felt that Elizabeth was watching over him and guiding him.

He knew that the merging of three separate cultures was made easier with the single goal, but over the year relationships had begun to emerge, and they would be welcoming their first Traveller-Earth child to the world soon.

They were known to the Pegasus Galaxy as the Lanteans, and it was a name they chose to take as they were the people of Lantea and Atlantis, and the people of Earth were the children of the Ancient Lanteans.

A new command model had been established, or more correctly they had recreated the Atlantis High Council of old. John was the High Councillor as leader of Atlantis. Larrin was the Traveller representative to the council. Teyla and Kanaan jointly represented the Athosians. Doctor Keller was the chief of Medicine and had a seat on the council, as did Doctor McKay as Chief of Sciences.

Another seat was given to Colonel Caldwell, who commanded the Pegasus Defence Fleet and in battle the Travellers ships. The last seat was given to Richard Woolsey. He helped keep diplomacy on the table and proposed actions that would benefit them in the long term if relationships were cultivated correctly.

After only a week of the council's official formation, the off-world activation alarm sounded in Stargate Operations.

"What have we got?" John asked eagerly. He had not slept well the night before, having dreamt of the Ancient-Wraith war vividly. His mood had been made worse by a meeting with one of the science teams who wanted more resources for studying rocks on a distant planet.

"Incoming wormhole," Chuck said, reading the screen in front of him for an IDC. He paused, and a look of shock appeared on his face. "I am receiving the IDC of Stargate Command, Sir."

John frowned. In all the time that they had been back, the SGC had never tried to dial Atlantis, which John knew was because O'Neill would have prevented it subtly as he knew they were on Lantea. When the _Apollo_ had come looking, they had checked the planet for any sign of them and found none.

"This is General O'Neill of Homeworld Command calling Atlantis. It is time for you to come out from the cold, boys and girls! Colonel Sheppard?" said a voice over the radio frequency.

John didn't want to trust the transmission. Replicating vocals was easy with the right technology, and the General and not given the sign.

"Sheppard, I told you that when it was safe I would call and that I would tell you that even in command it is possible to find those that you want to spend your life with," the voice said, "I also know that you have used some of your own money to pay for the resources you took with you, and I helped you with your plan."

"This is Sheppard," John said, patching himself through onto the channel and opening the visual link. "How can Atlantis help the people of Earth?"

He barely noticed that he referenced himself as a different people now.

"The IOA have finally relented on the issue of Atlantis and the ongoing Expedition," Jack said encouragingly, "I will tell you now that I will be adding Apollo as a part of your permanent fleet, and I will be sending some additional expedition members. But before I can, the IOA will need a thorough report of all your activities, and they want an IOA representative on the city full time."

"I am here General," Richard said, stepping forward into the frame, "I am still under the employ of the IOA and can be their ongoing representative. Colonel Sheppard has kept detailed reported for this very moment, as have I. I will travel to Earth to report to the IOA myself. Colonel Sheppard should remain in the city as he is the commander of this Expedition."

"Very well," Jack said, smirking. "The IOA has already agreed for you to remain in command, Sheppard, at least for the time being. Dial back through and come through the gate Woolsey. The IOA are waiting upstairs."

John had silently agreed with Woolsey and was glad it had been him to make that declaration instead of him. The connection was ended with Earth. They immediately dialled back and sent Woolsey alone, but until his return John would not accept any inbound travellers.

Two days after Earth contacted them, the gate in Atlantis activated for what must have been the fiftieth time. The transmission showed both O'Neill and Woolsey in the Gateroom. They explained that while the relationship with the IOA and Atlantis was strained, they would not be immediately trying to replace John as its leader, but it would be a very turbulent future between them.

The World Powers who endorsed the Gate Program and the IOA had been instrumental with getting communication back with Atlantis as the ongoing war with the Lucian Alliance had increased, and they wanted Atlantis's help with the Destiny Expedition, who had been forced to go into stasis to escape the drone ships.

Earth had almost doubled the money being spent on ship production, but there was a strong fear that the Alliance had infiltrated Earth, and there was more than a little evidence supporting this assertion.

The largest issue that had taken some external political pressure and stern talking to from Woolsey and O'Neill was for the IOA to bend their pride and natures to allow the New Lantean Society to remain together as they had wanted the Athosians and Travellers removed and replaced with Earth citizens.

The IOA had insisted that every file and report be turned over to them for an intensive review of all Atlantis operations since they had returned to Pegasus and a thorough screening of all Athosians and Travellers who now called the city and mainland their home. John had agreed to their demand and advised that they could freely speak to the senior members of their people, but for the ordinary citizens, Teyla, John, or Larrin would need to be present to prevent them terrorising them.

With the lines of communication restored, the city had seen a great influx of travel with high ranking members of the IOA, SGC, and governments from Earth's many nations visiting to see the city and what had been done, but each visitor received a constant escort to prevent them from doing anything to harm the city.

The chain of command for the city was a blurry one. The city was an entire galaxy away, and the city held its own jurisdiction, but Earth held command over their operations. With the two native Pegasus races as part of the new society, it was harder to enforce. John tried to walk the line, but it came as a surprise when he realised just how different the running of Atlantis was to that of Earth's many governments. He realised they didn't really fit in with it.

John returned to Earth after the evaluation with Jack escorting him through the gate to reassure him that he would not be arrested when he stepped through the event horizon and would be free to return to his city, but before he had stepped through the gate he ordered the _Daedalus_ to return to Earth just in case the USAF or the IOA had plans to arrest him.

When he arrived, he had been escorted to the surface to be transported to the White House to meet with the President, who wanted to congratulate him for his time as leader of the city and had promised that his general stars would be on his shoulders in the future. The IOA were trying to stop his promotion, but a presidential order was very hard to stop, and they had no control over the Air Force.

Larrin had been his first choice to be left in charge of the city as a show that the Travellers were trusted members of Lantea, but she had instead asked to accompany him to Earth to see the place where the Tau'ri came from and to see the origin of the Ancestors, so Teyla had taken charge.

She had been awed by what she saw; it was a culture shock, especially as there were no civilisations in Pegasus that could rival Earth. The population density was what shocked her, but also the diversity in culture. John took her to Area 51 to see the R&amp;D and took her to their shipyard where the BC:304 _Elizabeth II_ was being built.

However, with the connection back to Earth and further resources, the Settlement was completed and its facilities finished. They also finished the Alpha site installation. New advances were also to be shared, and Rodney was able to finally finish the designs of the Subspace capacitor, which was to be built at Area 51.

But there was another concern for John. Gordon Matthews had found a number of entries in the Atlantis database that had been added spontaneously with no reason, and nobody had entered them. He had not found who created the virus, but whoever put it into the database had bypassed every security protocol.

He did, however, find a reference to an Lantean docking port that was built to help the city and to prevent their ships falling to wraith hands in the resource outpost. Its location was not known, but it stated that the transport shuttles that were once on the planet had been sent to the port when the Wraith arrived.

He had also found records of another facility that sat in the power of life to bring great power to the Lanteans, but it seemed that all exact references had been deleted from the database, but the vague reference was one of those files that had been added by the unknown person.

The young boy requested leave from Atlantis for a time. He wanted to study the Asgard core under the observation of Doctor Jackson, who was stationed on the _Odyssey_. John was reluctant to let him go as the boy had a knack for finding information, but he also possessed a powerful ATA gene aptitude, but John agreed but made him promise to return.

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	7. Chapter 7

The Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Seven**

**Death in the library**

Four month had passed since the reestablishment of communication between Earth and Atlantis, and it had been a slow few months for everyone in the city. John was still in command, but the scrutiny that he was under was increasing. John could feel himself beginning to crack under the pressure, The Wraith were now sure that Atlantis was in Pegasus and had tried to strike at them. They had been unable to locate the city, so they struck at human worlds they often traded with, spreading the Lantean Fleet very thin.

John was now stuck in Atlantis more than ever. All of the other members of the Lantean Council got off world, but he was stuck. The IOA were monitoring him, and Woolsey had told him that if he left they might attempt to overthrow his command.

It amused John to no end that Richard Woolsey, the interfering IOA plant and former leader of the city who John had forced out of office and kidnapped, had become one of his trusted advisors.

The IOA were breathing down his neck, but they held little power over Atlantis. John was grateful for that fact as recent news from Earth worried him.

The Alliance's knowledge of their top secret projects greatly worried John as it meant that they had access to the top levels of Earth organisations and commands. Brainwashing technologies had been used in the past, which meant that they could have sleeper agents passing them information and the person wouldn't even know what they were doing.

If the Alliance had known about the top secret Icarus Project and _Destiny_, then he knew that they were aware of Atlantis. _Destiny_ was so far away that it was nearly impossible for them to attempt to board the ancient ship unless they found another suitable planet, but Pegasus was only one galaxy away. It would be seen as easier prey.

The Alliance used what remained of the System Lords' fleet. That meant they used a Goa'uld hyperdrive that was limited to interstellar travel, but if they were able to obtain star charts for Pegasus and found a design for an intergalactic hyperdrive, they could make the journey. The High Council of Atlantis and Homeworld Command feared that there might possibly be technology left by Anubis, who had the knowledge of an Ascended Being, which could include hyperdrive technologies along with further weapons, shields and power designs that would give the Alliance further power.

Earth, the Tok'ra and the FJN had not found any sign of Anubis's top secret research planet where he had spent a considerable amount of time in exile before he returned. However, there were rumours of it, and it was these rumours which created a lot of fear.

John's first thought had been to close all access to Atlantis from the Milky Way, both because of the Alliance and the IOA, but he owed some communication to Earth and his people, and the supplies were greatly needed.

_Apollo_ was often used as their supply ship, and John made good use of it whilst it was in Pegasus, using it to help take out the Wraith. They seemed to have disappeared and were not appearing on the long range sensors, but they had been made aware of a number of worlds that had been attacked. They seemed to be keeping out of sight unless they wanted to be found.

Caldwell was the commander of the Pegasus Defence Fleet. When the _Apollo_ was in Pegasus, it fell under Lantean jurisdiction. Therefore, Caldwell was Colonel Ellis' superior, a fact that Ellis had not been happy about. When he had been told, he had immediately had the gate dialled to Earth so that he could talk to O'Neill. John had not known the exact content of the conversation, but afterward Ellis had accepted his role on Atlantis and had complied with every order Caldwell had given.

When the _HMS Elizabeth II_ arrived at Atlantis, John had been very surprised as he had not been made aware that it was on its way, but the captain had explained that this was their maiden voyage to test out their hyperdrive over long journeys. It had made it two days earlier than other ships of its class thanks to a new installation.

Because this ship had a new power source, it was one of the more powerful 304s. It was the first Earth vessel to be equipped with the first prototype subspace capacitor, designed by Rodney McKay and Samantha Carter and built at the Allied Stargate Technology Development site, locally known on Earth as Area 51.

The capacitor was a marvel in Earth innovation, of which Rodney was very proud as it had been his idea and he had been the leading mind behind its development. John, however, made a point to remind Rodney that he had cheated, having seen the technology on the alternate _Daedalus_ from another universe. Despite the odd origins, they planned to eventually install the capacitor on all of their ships to provided unlimited power at higher levels than the current naquadah generators and engines.

_Elizabeth II_ had come with supplies, but they had come with another objective: they wanted to make a copy of the Atlantis Database. Whilst the city had protocols in place to prevent it being transferred out of the city, a portion could be copied to an external drive.

The crew had been allowed into the city whilst the supplies were transported and the download was going through, but the city security protocols had been updated to prevent the crew from getting to areas they were not authorised to enter.

Gordon Matthews was sitting in the Lantean library, a room that was located on one of the outer piers. It contained many database terminals but also a great library of books. The library had been discovered by a team of structural engineers that were checking for damage on the outer piers. It was labelled in the database as a storage area.

The library books had been damaged in the floods that had ruined other areas of the city. Whilst most were now illegible, some were salvageable. The library had also contained a number of stone carvings and many oddities also covered in Lantean carvings.

Gordon was fluent in Lantean, Goa'uld and Asgard. Knowledge retention had come easily to him since he was a child, but he was working on new technologies, such as the Ancient Lantean Stun Weapons- he was in the process of creating one. However, he always managed to find hours to spend in the library, reading through pages of history and details about the many things the Ancient Altera and Lanteans had discovered. In fact, he often thought he might spend more time in the library than his own lab working on his weapon project.

He was sitting in the library, researching the vague reference he had found to the Lantean docking station and the great power of the Lanteans. He had been unable to find anything, and it was frustrating. He could find no hidden partitions or unauthorised access to the database that could have inserted the new data.

"This database has many redundancies, but this data has been uploaded into the back ups, and I cannot find any other references to them!" he muttered with annoyance. He knocked his paper onto the floor as he hit the table.

As he bent to pick it up, he heard the door open.

"Doctor McKay, I will be out of here when the _Elizabeth II_ departs," Gordon said in annoyance, "I have already told you that I know my way around the systems, and I will not break anything."

Choosing to ignore the brilliant but arrogant scientist, he continued his perusal of the database. McKay continued to walk towards him but still did not speak.

Wondering why the usually very talkative man was so silent, he turned. It was only then that he realised just how close the person was. He was dressed in an Atlantis uniform, but it was not doctor McKay, and he was walking towards him with a hypodermic needle.

"What –," Gordon said, startled. He jumped to his feet as the man lunged.

"It has taken me some time to find you. You identified too many of us in the past," the man said, "Not that it matters. Nobody will find your body."

They began to fight, but the assailant was surprised that Gordon resisted. Then, everything went dark.

**o-O-o**

John was sitting in his office going over the latest data when an alarm sounded. He rushed out of his office.

"What's going on?" he asked, looking around for the cause.

"The City just set off the alarm," Amelia said, looking at her screen in confusion. "I have never seen this before."

"Radek," John said into the radio. "Please come to Operations."

"Yes, Colonel," Radek said breathlessly.

John was not surprised to see the man (looking out of breath) only a minute later.

"Where were you?" John asked, curious.

"At grounding station four, repairing the system the Genii broke," He said. "What is the alarm for?"

"Well, I was hoping you could tell me," John said, "We have never seen it before."

Radek walked over to another station and pulled up the city's system diagnostics. "The city has detected a life sign that has disappeared on the outer edge of the city, but the sensors have also picked up weapons discharge!"

"Where?" John demanded.

"The library on the south pier!" Radek said, bringing up a layout of the pier.

"This is Colonel Sheppard to security teams, head to the library. We have detected a gunshot," John ordered. "Security teams to secured areas," he added, finishing the broadcast and turning back to Radek and Amelia. "Secure the city, but allow the security through."

John left Operations as quickly as he could and made for the transport booth, which opened as he approached. He pressed the closest booth to the library, but it was still a long distance to the library. He broke out into a run to reach the room as soon as possible.

When he arrived, he was met by a sight that surprised him. Gordon was laying unconscious on the floor with a gun in his hand, but laying in a pool of blood was a man John didn't know, who had been shot.

"Colonel Sheppard, we found them like this. We cannot wake Matthews," a Traveller security officer said. "I have requested a medical team."

"Good," John said. He walked over to the dead man. He had two shots to the heart. That was the kill shot for a marksman. Frowning to himself, John walked over to the closet terminal out of the way of everyone and tapped in to a direct line to Zelenka.

"Radek, can you send Gordon Matthews' file to this terminal?"

"Sure," Radek said. A minute later, the file appeared on the screen in front of him.

The terminal did not have access to restricted information like personnel records or security information, but Radek was able to add to the screen by some technical magic that John didn't want to understand. He had read the young man's file before, but he wanted to check for something.

Five minutes later, Doctor Keller arrived with a team of medics, and they had wheeled Gordon to the infirmary, after which she bent down and examined the corpse.

"Don't tell me. Death by gunshot?" he asked, walking over to her.

"Yes, but he also had a broken wrist and two fingers," she said, studying the man's body.

"You know, I have seen these injuries before, but usually only by those who have had Special Forces training," John said, frowning. The young researcher was very well liked amongst the Lanteans, but John wondered how the man had managed to take down a man twice his size.

"Sir," a security officer said. John turned to see that he was holding a syringe "We found this under the table."

"Get that to one of the labs. Get the substance analysed. Neon green does not look like a vitamin shot."

"John, he had these on him," Jenifer said. In her hands, she held a set of data crystals that looked remarkably Goa'uld in origin as well as a photograph of Gordon wearing a British military uniform.

John took the crystals and handed them to the security officer. "Get these to McKay and Zelenka. I want these cracked for whatever data they have on them. Jenifer, please see if you can find out anything more about our mystery guest. I do not recognise him, which makes me think that he is not on our staff."

"He is also not Athosian or a Traveller," Doctor Keller said, looking into his mouth. "This dental work is from Earth. I also do not recognise him, but I would guess that he could have come on the _Elizabeth II_. they have been docked with us since last week."

"True," John replied, rubbing his chin where stubble was accumulating. He pressed his radio with a sigh. "This is Sheppard. I want the _Elizabeth II_ and its crew to be contained until further notice. I want the crew manifest and photo identification to be compared to the crew. We seem to have a mystery guest that will be in the morgue."

"Yes, Sir."

"While they get that going, I think you should get to your patients, Doc. I will assign a guard to the infirmary just in case there are more of them, but keep me posted when you find anything on the body or if Matthews wakes up. I have a few questions for him," John said, but he didn't get far before the captain of the British ship demanded to know why his crew were contained and what the situation on Atlantis was.

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	8. Chapter 8

**.**

**.**

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Chapter Eight **

**The Warning **

Two days had passed since the strange death on Atlantis; Gordon Matthews had still not awoken from the odd coma he had been found in after he had been attacked by a mystery assailant.

Colonel Sheppard sat reading through the reports that sat on his desk, the entire crew of _Elizabeth II_had been quarantined and questioned and they were no further forward, the dead man was on the crew list, a late addition by someone back on Earth. If John wanted more information he would have to contact Earth which was not something he was inclined to do.

The dead man who was called John Smith, which was a name which made John wonder how it had not been flagged. A full autopsy had not given them more information, cause of death was two bullets to the heart, but his wrist was broken as was two fingers on the same hand which John had known the day it had happened.

John sighed and pulled out a bottle of Aspirin from his drawer to try and relieve the headache that throbbed in his head, he had been in sessions with the council nearly all day. The Travellers were becoming divided; some wanted to remain with Atlantis whilst others wanted to continue roaming galaxy. Larrin's influence only went so far and she empathised with her people as they had known that way of life for so long but she had told him that she would stay, but John knew that in the future some of the Traveller ships would return to their previous ways, John planned to propose that one or two vessels were allowed to roam but he was not sure it was a good idea but it was the only thing he could do to prevent their society from falling apart.

The Athosian's also wanted to develop further, Teyla had taken a number of her people to Earth to visit the planet that had been able to develop without threat for thousands of years and what they had seen had shocked them but it had also given them ideas. The Athosians were a previously advanced people that had been reduced to a trading people to mere farmers. However, with the help of Atlantis they were able to return to peaceful way of life and they now wanted to take steps toward becoming an advanced race of people again.

Athos had been decimated by the Wraith, but they wanted to begin the build anew there. A Galactic market would open trade across all of Pegasus, which would also benefit all members of the coalition. With the Alpha site facility completed it allowed recourses to be freed for new projects but they did not had enough infrastructure for two projects and John wanted the ship yard built first.

Teyla had agreed that it was important but she had asked that the project start preparing the ground where they would like the market to be located, John had allowed this and approved some materials but he promised once available more resources would be set aside for them.

"Colonel Sheppard" said a female voice over the internal radio.

"Yeah?"

"He just woke up, you might want to come down" Doctor Keller said.

"On my way"

When John arrived in the infirmary, he saw that Matthews was sitting up eating a bowl of what looked like gruel but look otherwise fine, but medical personnel were performing tests on him whilst he ate.

"Colonel" Matthews said surprised "Doctor Keller will not tell me what happened to me! I was attacked!"

"Yes I know" John said watching him carefully "what do you remember?"

"I was studying the database looking for the information you asked of me, the door opened and I thought it was doctor McKay checking up on me as he has taken to doing, it was only after he did not say anything for a number of minutes that I turned and noticed that it wasn't him and the man had a needle in his hands and I do not remember what happened next as all I know is I woke up here." he said glumly.

John pulled out the photograph that had been found on the assailant, "he had this photo of you, I checked your record, there is no mention of a military history in it."

Matthews frowned and took the photograph and looked at it in confusion "I don't understand, this looks like me, but it isn't me. I was recruited straight out of university I have never even thought about joining the military."

John took it back, he thought the young man was being honest but man had been killed with someone who had military training and here was a photo of Matthews in military dress but the boy didn't know anything about it.

"Well I hope you feel better" John said lamely and walked over to Doctor Keller who was looking at a computer screen. "Have you learnt anything new?"

"No, as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with him." Jenifer said frowning "His blood work shows no abnormalities and neither does his brain scans, his recognition shows nothing untoward. I ran a number of scans looking for signatures of the brainwashing technology we are aware of being used for sleeper agents but I have found none."

"Doc there is no way that the injuries to Mr Smith could have been caused by an untrained scientist." John said looking at him as he continued to eat his meal, "He is good at his job but what he must have done makes me uneasy and I would prefer he were not here."

"The _Elizabeth II_should be leaving in the next few days." she pointed out, "You have released the crew and captain from isolation now."

"I know, the captain is not happy and has asked that the body be transferred to the ship when they leave." John stated "He understood my actions as commander of this city but would have preferred a joint investigation. I think I might send Matthews back to Earth; I will need to send a message to the SGC to have further checks done on him before I agree to have him back in the city. I will also ask for further investigation into the crew of that ship and I want to know who that assassin was, none of the crew knew much about him, he was a technician assigned to the maintenance crews."

"Rodney told me that the data crystal that was found on him contained schematics to the city?" she questioned

"Yes, also star chart data, but also details on our systems and allies."

"He is a spy."

"I think so, but I do not know who for." John admitted with a shrug, "But when that ship is gone I will be happy."

He walked back to Gordon explained that it was on doctor Keller's recommendation that he was to be transferred back to Earth for further test to find out what had caused him to lapse into a coma.

With his visit complete he began to walk up to the jumper bay, he wanted to get over to the mainland and see how the construction of the two schools that were nearly completed but he also wanted to see if the port construction was underway, it was a project that was hope to allow sea vessels for the mainland inhabitants to fish and travel Lantea more freely but also as a docking point for any 'jumpers.

The mainland was in John's opinion a place of great beauty that rivalled that of Atlantis but in a very different way, the houses were made of a material that was both modern but rustic, with glass and metals and woods. They had a large road leading through the settlement but it was decorated with flowers in pots and climbers but it was in the centre of the settlement that held the great monument. An obelisk made of pure white stone which was almost opaque onto which was carved three languages and three symbols that represented the Athosians, Travellers and people of Earth. One symbol united them, the symbol the Atlantis, the city was carved into a separate piece of stone that glowed and floated above the obelisk, and even on the brightest day it could be seen glowing in the centre of the settlement.

The schools were built just outside the confines of the settlement, like much of the settlement the architects had planned for the future and allowed plenty of room for future expansion, the two schools and the hospital were the largest structures built but they were not fully occupied currently as the population was small. A tavern had been created from one of the storage buildings serving food and delicacies from Lantea's many trading partners but also served alcohol which was served in small amounts due to the supply.

It was a great accomplishment that they had made here on the mainland, they were now nearly entirely self-sufficient. Food was ample and what they did not have they traded for, Earth supplies were well received which was funded by developments in technology using the Atlantis database and other advances made by the expedition, Funding had been cut due to the financial difficulties on Earth but they were able to survive. Medicine and treatment was free to all, the supplies were sent from Earth and surplus was used to trade, but they were developing their own medicines using plants and creature extracts from this galaxy. Food and water was free, the tavern served alcoholic drinks but a system was in place to limit peoples drinking as tokens were given every month which could be spent in the tavern.

Schooling was free, but labour was needed, as well as teams for the expeditions and military and security personnel, even the elderly could find a profession in the nurseries, gardens or some took care of other areas of their budding industry, but most chose to take to a quiet life enjoying the peace that the settlement gave.

Larrin and Teyla both enjoyed time on the mainland as both of their peoples were integrating well, it had come as a surprise when it was discovered that two future children were to be born, a Traveller-Athosian and a Traveller-Earth child, both of which were highly anticipated as they represented their union as a society.

"Sheppard, the transfer to the _Elizabeth II_ has completed, the captain is requesting permission to leave the pier." Rodney told him over the radio

"I will leave now" John said and he left the tavern where he was catching up with some of his friends and journeyed back to his 'jumper so that he could communicate with them.

"Captain Copping, we are in the green" John broadcast once he had activated the systems with a touch of his hand "I take it you would like to leave?"

"Unfortunately Colonel we are under orders to leave as soon as we are done, and the delay with the attack on Mr Matthews has already prolonged our stay, I would not be surprised if the IOA do not ask our whereabouts soon" the reply came.

"Then permission to disembark, Atlantis wishes you a safe journey" John said looking feed he opened on the HUD showing footage of the ship where it sat on the pier.

"Thank you Atlantis, But I feel I should warn you, there was talk back home by the IOA to have the Tria back on Earth at some point" the Captain said "our representative has been fighting the order, just as they did for this city to return, but we believe that we may lose especially as the Protected Planets Treaty is also being called into question."

"Thanks for the warning, any help you can give us will be appreciated but the Alliance cannot gate to Atlantis, or Pegasus, and their ships cannot cross the void, we should be safe for now as long as they have not upgraded their ships beyond what Intel we have suggests." John replied and watched as the ship fired its thrusters and took off and launched into the atmosphere. "Please take care of Matthews, I would like him back in one piece, but any light that you shed on the attack would also be accepted happily."

"Understood Colonel. Good luck with your fight with the Wraith."

John didn't take the warning lightly, he travelled back to Atlantis with haste, once landed he went straight to his office where Rodney and Radek were waiting as he had requested.

"I want an update on the Tria" he told them as he took a seat.

"Well you know the hyperdrive is next to useless, it cannot be repaired as we do not have the parts or the full understanding of Ancient hyperdrives." Rodney said "We had planned to remove it and fit an Asgard variant into the ship."

"So if someone wanted to steal it how could they do it?" he said "and what can we do to prevent it happening. Hypothetically?"

"Hypothetically it could be jumped into hyperspace by another vessel; all it would need are its shields." Rodney said, "Who may take it?"

"Let's just say an organisation that has their own agenda." John stated watching for their reactions.

They both sat shocked for a moment and they knew who he was talking about

"Well if they had access to our technology, they might be able to tow it away from Atlantis, the Asgard had the technology and it is installed on the _Hammond_ and _Elizabeth II_" Radek said pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Well" Sheppard said "I want a shield generator added to the ship to protect it from being towed, I also want you to lock out navigation and propulsion, and can it be done?"

"Well the ship needs the ATA gene" Rodney said thinking out loud, "I could add a subroutine into the command matrix that will only allow a person with the ATA gene and perhaps your genetic sequence to use the ship."

"Get started." Shepard ordered Radek, "Take whoever you need."

Radek left leaving Rodney sitting looking worried.

"Who would they send?" Rodney asked making sure they were not overheard.

"Caldwell wouldn't as he is stationed here permanently." John said thinking on the captains of Earths ships "Samantha Carter has command of the _George Hammond_; Cameron Mitchell has the _Odyssey_, both of who I know and trust. Leaving Colonel Ellis of the _Apollo_"

"Would he do it, I know he wasn't happy that Caldwell was his superior but would he do it?"

"I do not know" John admitted, "he might if ordered, but there is one more ship."

"The _Sun Tzu_" Rodney said "It belongs to the Chinese, we should be careful if they come too, the IOA has funding from them but I wouldn't be surprised if they ordered the acquisition."

"Well I do not plan to allow that ship out of our hands, but to keep them at bay, please make sure Radek gets the ship locked to Atlantis, but I want to try and work on a way to get that Hyperdrive working, strip it down and find out how it works and what parts we need, if we have to we will get a matter stream construction unit from Earth to help manufacture part or build one ourselves."

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	9. Chapter 9

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**.**

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Chapter Nine**

**Distress Beacon**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unnamed System – Asteroid belt**

_USS George Hammond_ was sitting in an asteroid belt many light years away from Earth, on the bridge sat Brigadier General Samantha Carter, the commission of the vessel pleased her. She had served under General Hammond when he commanded the SGC and she felt it a privilege to command the ship named after him.

The reason for being in this uninhabited and desolate region of space was to test a newly developed technology. Area 51, using Asgard Beaming technology and integrated Matter Stream technology, had developed a prototype mining technology which used the principles of both Asgard technologies but ingenious way.

Her crew were beaming aboard asteroids into the hanger bays and then used the beaming technology to extract raw materials from the asteroids and then used the matter stream technology to raw elements and then reinstitute them into a processes composite block of material for future use.

It was the second aspect of the technology that was proving to be difficult, Matter Stream technology could simply create matter using raw power but it was not an efficient means of construction, but transforming a raw material into something workable using the same technology was not as easy as the Area 51 scientists believed it would be.

Asteroid faming was hoped to be a possible way of mining materials, even with their off world mining operations, it opened further options.

"General we are receiving a subspace communication from Homeworld Command" Major Kevin Marks announced.

"On screen" Sam ordered.

"General Carter?" said a voice crackling voice.

"Yes Sir" Sam said loudly but turned to Marks and said in a lower voice, "strengthen the signal open visual link."

A moment later on screen was the gruff face of Jack O'Neill

"Carter, we have received a distress signal from the _Elizabeth II._One hour ago the beacon reached Earth, and we have not been able to establish contact."

Sam was immediately worried, the _Elizabeth II_ was a mark II BC:304 like her own and if she had met an enemy that could defeat it then her own ship would likely also be defeated.

"Where was the ship?"

"The coordinates we received place it a hundred light-years away from the planet Kawawn." Jack told her.

"Why was the Ship in that area of space?" Sam asked "I believed that it was having a shakedown of its hyperdrive for long distances using a supply run for Atlantis as the test."

"It was." Jack agreed, "The ship should have returned to Earth three days ago, we contacted Colonel Sheppard and he told us that the ship left a few weeks ago. However, he did update us on a development that happened on the city, there was a rogue crew member who tried to kill an Atlantis expedition member."

"We will leave immediately, but you should know that if the _Elizabeth II_was destroyed then the _Hammond_will also be in danger."

"Understood, your orders are to drop out of hyperspace outside of the system and enter using sub light engines." Jack said, before asking hopefully "I don't suppose you have managed to develop a cloak in your spare time?"

"Sorry sir, I haven't" Sam said smiling at his joke, although she made a mental note to see if she could get a cloaking crystal from Atlantis; "We will be careful and contact you soon."

"Good luck Sam, keep safe." Jack said before cutting the communication.

"Set a course for Kawawn." Sam told Captain Dave Kleinman the ships navigator.

"The course is set, opening the hyperspace window now." The captain said, the ship accelerated into the rift in space.

"General where is this planet?" Major Marks asked.

"I have never been there, but I know of it." Sam told him "Teal'c told me of it, it used to be a mining planet under Apophis but he left the planet after all of his Jaffa and human slaves were killed by an Ashrak. I believe that the planet is still unoccupied to this day, why Captain Copping and his ship were in that area of space I have no idea."

It took an hour and a half for them to enter the Kawawn space, when they dropped out the ships powerful sensors scanned the space around them but they showed no ships in the area or any life signs.

"General we have nothing on the sensors." Major Marks told her.

"Are we detecting the distress beacon from the _Elizabeth II_?"

"It is an hour away at Sublight." He explained, "Do you want to proceed?"

"We have no choice; we need to know what happened." Sam said firmly, "there may be survivors."

They eventually arrived, even though the Earth sublight engines were fast it was a slow method of travel through space. But the wait did not prepare them for what they saw.

A graveyard was what greeted them, a Ship graveyard.

They could see the remains of six Ha'tak vessels, fourteen Al'kesh and a number of Tel'taks, all of which were husks of the former ship, many of them had been split in half others showed large holes which could only have been made using a weapon that Sam was very familiar with.

But the sight of the destroyed ships was not what drew gasps from the crew of the _Hammond,_the Alliance vessels, for they had to be in this large number had circled another vessel.

Floating in the centre of the graveyard was a Daedalus-Class ship, its hull was blackened and large sections had been destroyed and were floating freely.

"Oh my god." Sam said standing up out of her seat and walking towards the window, "Are you detecting any life signs?"

"No ma'am" Kleinman told her sadly.

"She is not salvageable" Sam said sadly studying the ship that she had helped design and knew it would be futile to even try "She fought well, her captain managed to give a hard blow to the Alliance."

"General Carter, how did the Alliance even find the ship? And for that matter why was it even here?" Major Marks asked concerned.

Sam didn't answer, this was not a good situation. The ship was off course and had been ambushed, she could think of many possible reasons but none of them were good.

"Target the ship, no technology is to be salvaged by the Alliance of any other race." Sam ordered, "I would rather have the ship back on Earth but we cannot tow it, it won't be protected in hyperspace and it wouldn't make even a small voyage."

"Forward plasma batteries have the ship targeted." Major Marks announced but Sam held up a hand to stall him from firing.

"Here fell the ship _Elizabeth II_, in her short service she dealt a might blow to the Lucian Alliance but tragically fell with all hands." Sam said sadly "Long will you be remembered."

She turned to the Major and nodded, he activated the ships weapons and four beams of plasma hit the ship in vulnerable areas which caused secondary explosions. The ships wreckage was reduced to slag and small amounts of metal.

"I want all of the wreckage beamed aboard; this will allow the science team aboard to continue with their experiments with the beaming technology." Sam ordered "I want six teams ready to transfer over to the enemy vessels, search for any information on this attack."

"General Carter, nearly all of the vessels are registering no life support and are venting atmosphere" Kleinman reported, "but some of the vessels have the beaming jamming field activated still."

"We can use the ring transport systems, these ships should have them." Sam said looking out "ours will need to be activated, luckily we still have the system installed some wanted them made redundant since we use beaming technology."

Sam walked over to a terminal and opened up subspace link to Earth, she had to report their findings and it was also possible that the Alliance had managed to grab some of their technology, the fact that there were no vessels still here suggested the fact, but she supposed that it was possible that they had destroyed each other in the attack.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth - Stargate Command**

A day later Homeworld Command had received the findings of the _Hammond,_ and it was becoming clear that the Alliance was stepping up their war against Earth and many members of the SGC were starting to feel like the Alliance was winning.

General Landry had read over the reports and had sent fifteen SG teams off world to gain intelligence on the Alliance movements but he knew that they would not find out much, what they needed was an Alliance mole but they were not easy to plant or find.

He was just making himself a cup of coffee when there was a knock on the door, he was surprised to see an old friend standing there.

"Jack! What are you doing here?"

"Officially I am not here" Jack told him and he helped himself to a cup of coffee, "and can I not just visit?"

"Jack I think I have known you long enough to know you have a reason for being here" Landry said taking a seat.

"Yes well, I supposed your right." Jack admitted, "Just got to wait for someone."

"Who –"Landry began to say but didn't need to finish as there was a light and a blurry outline of a person appeared in his office. "General Carter"

"Glad you could make it Carter, cup of coffee?" Jack offered.

"Sir, you know I am just a hologram right?" Carter said "I can't drink that."

"Well it seemed rude not to ask" Jack explained smiling, he then turned to look at Landry "for the last twenty four hours I have been hounded by the British; they think we have stolen their ship, sending it on a fool's errand for it to be destroyed."

"Well I trust you told them we did not?" Landry asked

"Of course" Jack replied "but the world is in a financial depression and the British bought that ship and now their economy has taken a hit, as you know 304's are not cheap."

"What I would like to know, is how did the Alliance find the ship?" Sam asked

"Its orders were to drop off supplies to Atlantis and then return directly here." Landry stated looking at the report in front of him, "but I spoke to Colonel Sheppard and he told me that the ship was sent to get a portion of the Atlantis Database, the download consisted if data on propulsion, shields, weapons and navigational charts."

"That was not sanctioned through my office." Jack said rising an eyebrow, "This is the first I have heard of it."

"I only just spoke with Atlantis and was writing up the report, you are certain that the orders did not come from your office Jack."

"Defiantly, But I am not overly surprised. The system they were in was located passed Earth in the path back from Pegasus, it was no accident that they found themselves there." Jack stated "Carter what did you find at the site?"

"The ship was a wreck, nearly entirely burnt out, but it was surrounded by Alliance vessels all of which had been destroyed by the ship." she explained "I had the ship destroyed to prevent it falling into Alliance hands and had teams scour the wrecks of the Alliance ships."

"What did you find?"

"Not much" she said honestly "We found Alliance bodies in all of the ships and found this"

Jack pulled from his pocket a flash drive which he handed to Landry who plugged it into his computer, it loaded an audio file.

_"This is Brigadier General Cameron Mitchell of the USS Odyssey, my ships life supports systems have malfunctioned, Stargate Command has requested that you assist us, authentication code SG5566/hn55/kkl"_

"That is my authentication code!" Landry exclaimed, "But how does Mitchell have it?"

"He didn't," Sam explained "Cam came to help with the wreckages and it was his teams that discovered it. However before they had arrived they had been on the Tok'ra homeworld collecting Vala."

"They finally got bored with her" Jack said shrugging to Landry.

"I have run this through a voice algorithm detection program and that voice was computer generated using extracts of the real Cameron Mitchells voice." Sam explained further "This was an ambush, and the Alliance led the ship there."

"This is not the first time that they have targeted one of our ships, The _Odyssey_ was their last target but they left before it turned into a fight." Jack said "The Alliance has also taken over four worlds that fall under our protection, they know everything about us, and they know our projects and our codes."

"What are you suggesting Jack?" Landry questioned

"They are being fed Intel, someone has got passed our scans for moles." he said firmly.

"What can we do?" Hank asked leaning back with a deep sigh wondering if he could retire soon.

"There is nothing that we can do, however the person we need is Vala, she has connections across this galaxy and she has dealt with the Alliance before. I want her to gather information regarding this attack." Jack said seriously, "The president has agreed with my request and she will have the _Odyssey_ backing her up at all times, and I want that Asgard Core that is on that ship and away from possible Alliance moles."

"You know that Vala is likely to take the initiative on this mission?" Hank pointed out hesitantly "how will you explain that?"

"I won't" Jack smirked "She is not a citizen of Earth, and if she resigns as a member of the SGC she is no longer our responsibility. Earth cannot prosecute her or pass judgement on her activities off world."

"She will agree" Sam said fondly "you know how she finds our rules sir"

"Carter speak with her." Jack said carefully "express your belief that it is time for her to move on but tell her there is a business opportunity on a planet. Where it just so happens Colonel Mitchell has been dispatched to."

"So you are telling me that SG1 will not be coming back to the SGC" Landry pointed out "Well I suppose it is time to let you move on. I just hope that Vala makes some headway with the Alliance, her and Mitchell both have bounties on their head.

**Milky Way Galaxy - Orbit of P4N-225**

It had been a week Vala had resigned from her position at the SGC, she had been escorted to the Gateroom where she had been allowed her choice of destinations. The IOA had been adamant that she was not allowed to remain on the planet, so Vala chose an address.

She had arrived on a planet with no sign of civilisation, but had gone through seven gates before arriving on an industrial world of traders, it was here that Vala 'acquired' through her own means a Goa'uld cargo ship.

With that ship she had set off to rendezvous with the _Odyssey_ which had landed on a planet where they could install a tracking device and other systems to allow the mission to go ahead. Vala had made contact with people she had known from her own mercenary days and had become aware of a planet where Alliance members often met and traded or more accurately bullied for wares.

The _Odyssey_ was officially on a mission to check on planets that fell under the protected planets treaty, but it was a tenuous mission since the IOA was still reducing funding and constraining mission's relation to the treaty.

But now _Odyssey_ was in orbit above the planet with its cloak active, its sensors were monitoring everything that was happening on the planet, including ship signatures which amounted to eight vessels, all of which belonged to the Alliance as the natives were an agrarian society.

Vala had been able to locate weak link in the Alliance chain of command and had been able to find someone who might have information they needed. She and Colonel Mitchell had travelled in her Tel'tak to the planet, the Odyssey sat waiting for any signals for extraction. In command of the vessel temporarily was Doctor Daniel Jackson who stood patiently at the observation window.

"Doctor Jackson" said the technician monitoring sensor readings.

"Yes?" Daniel asked looking over and breaking out of his thoughts and looking down on the planet

"We are detecting the seven ships are powering up on the surface" he said looking over the data, "Miss Mal Doran's ship has not powered up."

"Can you locate both Vala and Colonel Mitchell's subspace locators?" he asked

"Both of them are aboard one of the Alliance Tel'taks" the technician said "but our Tel'tak is now powering up."

"The tracking devices that we installed will keep track of that ship, we need to follow their signals, wait for them to enter hyperspace and then follow them" Daniel ordered.

"Doctor, with all due respect, you are not in command of this ship" said a major coming onto the bridge and glaring at him "you are an archaeologist. We should beam them out now."

"For now I am in command of this ship as appointed by Cameron Mitchel, Major Franks what is the position of those ships?" Daniel said sternly

"They have just broken through the atmosphere" the technician said and after a moment he said "they have jumped to hyperspace, our Tel'tak is currently performing a scan."

Daniel considered that and it did not bode well if they were scanning now, but this ship had the advantage over Goa'uld technology.

"This ship is cloaked, an Ancient Cloak. Their sensors will not detect us"

The ship stayed in orbit of the planet for a number of minutes before it jumped to hyperspace leaving them alone.

"Have you detected the trajectory of the subspace transmitter?" Daniel asked

"Yes sir, but our sensors will be unable to track them whilst we are in hyperspace" Franks said "We will have to drop out to track it further."

"Jump us to the closest neighbouring system" Daniel ordered, and the order was executed immediately, and they dropped the cloak and jumped to hyperspace.

**Milky Way Galaxy - Lucian Alliance Al'kesh**

Vala was dressed in an outfit that more befitted her time as a pirate, with Mitchell in clothes that he used when impersonating Alliance members. Both were standing in the cargo hold of the ship covered by five Alliance grunts holding M16 Assault Rifles.

"Boys now is this really necessary, I told you, we have information relating to the Tau'ri" Vala said calmly "If you have to have us at gunpoint, couldn't you have at least provided some bondage?" she gave one of their guards a flirty wink but received no response.

"Your charms are wasted on my men" Said a commanding voice, "I am Commander Juridah, now what information do you have on the Tau'ri?" in his hand was a hand held pistol which looked too similar to a desert eagle for Mitchells liking.

"I have information regarding the schematics of their ships, and their weapons capabilities" Vala said "I would be happy to tell them to you over dinner"

"We are already aware of the capabilities of their ships, they have the technology of the Asgard" Juridah said "What can you tell me about that technology"

"Oh plenty darling" Vala said smiling toothily "but what will you give me in return, you have taken my Tel'tak."

"How is it you came to know this information regarding Tau'ri technology?" Juridah enquired ignoring the question, "for you to have that information you must have had access to their ships."

"I once managed to hijack one of their ships" she said "but I have since managed to infiltrate the crew of one their other ships."

"Which ship would that be? The _Odyssey_? _George Hammond_? _Apollo_? _Daedalus_ or _Sun Tzu_? We are aware that the _Elizabeth II_ was destroyed." Juridah said with a look of annoyance "Or perhaps you are not who you claim to be, and your name is not Kali or Kirk, perhaps you are a Tau'ri."

"Darling I have offered you Intel and now you insult me!" Vala said with a fake put out tone "Any information that I could give you will now have to be given to your commander. The prestige you could have got from my Intel is now beyond you."

"What about your friend?" Juridah said pointing his gun at Mitchell who glared at the man.

"Oh you can try to kill him, but I think you will find he will sooner kill you." she said and her hands clenched the strange looking belt buckle that they both had which glowed green.

Juridah didn't waste a moment and fired a shot directly at Mitchells head, but it was met with a green shield.

"Sorry bud, personal shield" Mitchel said smirking before he punched the man in the face knocking him out, the other officers were soon taken out, their automatic weapons fire useless against their shields. "I wish I had these on other missions."

"Oh yes, these would make business deals go much smoother" Vala said appreciating the device.

"Don't get used to it, we only have these two and I do not know how O'Neill got them from Atlantis but they served us well" Mitchel said they walked towards the cockpit and opened the door and dispatched of another two Alliance personnel and the pilot. "Where are we going?"

Vala sat herself in the pilot's seat and deactivated the personal shield device and bright up the navigation data, "we are flying towards the next system, and according to the data we will be meeting a large group of Alliance Ha'tak's."

"We need to tell Jackson" Mitchell said "can we send a message through subspace?"

"Not if we do not want to be caught by the Alliance" Vala said and she turned to look at him "so what's the plan?"

"We need the information from the Alliance, these shields should allow us an advantage but they are not inexhaustible," Mitchell said, "we have the Reol toxin which should allow us to convince people of who we are, but we need to be careful, our faces will be known to some of the alliance."

"Yes, yes, I got the report, some stubby little colonel with a look of an angry monkey was brainwashed and passed the Alliance sensitive information about that Ancient ship galaxies away." Vala said impatiently as she looked over at the weapons that they had taken "far be it for me to say it, but they should not have these weapons, I have never seen these weapons among the Alliance."

"No" Mitchel said picking up one of the M16 rifles and checked the magazine, before clipping it back on and cocking it and turning off the safety, "This was made back home. You should also not forget that both of us were already known to the Alliance before Colonel Telford gave them Intel."

An alert broke Vala's look and she looked down at the navigation computer "We are dropping out of Hyperspace."

They watched as the colours of hyperspace dissipated and they flew into normal space and saw that there was a large formation of Alliance ships, twelve Ha'tak surrounded by over fifty Al'kesh vessels and another forty Tel'taks but in the centre was a space station.

"This could be a problem" Mitchel said looking at them.

"Maybe, but whoever is in command here, is high up that ladder you always talk about, and they will know about the destruction of that English ship, that commander here knows of it, but I would bet that he doesn't know where information comes from." Vala said and a light lit up in front of them, "We are being hailed."

"Well answer it" he said with a shrug "but power our shields."

Vala did as bided and the screen showed a Lucian Alliance Commander who scowled at seeing them.

"Where is commander Juridah?" he demanded

"He is sleeping soundly sweetie; I wore him out" Vala said "the question is why were we escorted at gun point?"

"I do not know how Juridah came to capture you, but members of the Tau'ri will be destroyed, especially members of SG1" he said "Vala Mal Doran, I am aware of four bounties on your head, and General Cameron Mitchell you too have many enemies, did you think that I would not recognise you?"

"We were hoping" Cameron said "we will be going now"

He terminated the transmission and Vala piloted them out of the convoy, but they were soon followed by the other Tel'tak's, they were dodging weapons fire attempting to get to clear space.

"Where should we jump to?" Vala asked as the ship shook as the shields were hit "we cannot survive this bombardment for long and if the remaining ship –"

"Jump us for a minute and then drop us out, Jackson should be able to pick us up before they locate us." Cameron said and he left as the jumped into a hyperspace window and quickly took a Zat' from a soldier's side arm pouch and shot them all with it to keep them down.

"Mitchell we have just dropped out, how long until Daniel finds us?" Vala asked

"As long as it takes, he should have been following us." Mitchel said closing the rear compartment door in the ship and taking the co-pilot chair "can you seal them in?"

Vala not even thinking picked up the 'Zat and fired it directly at the door control, "well they cannot go anywhere now"

"And neither can we" he growled in frustration,

"Don't worry Mitchell, Daniel will be here soon to sweep me off my feet" she said happily and she looked out of the window as if expecting the _Odyssey_ to be above them. "Ah there they are!" she exclaimed seeing a window open but her face fell when seven Al'kesh dropped out of hyperspace.

They were sitting ducks, they knew that they could not survive bombardment, she began to evasive manoeuvres to avoid the onslaught of weapons fire, but their ship was not fast or overly manoeuvrable and they were hit four times in quick succession and the ship shook violently with sparks spraying from consoles.

Cam tried to get some shots off at the oncoming ships but their fire power was limited and their current ship was not going to outlast further bombardment.

"Get us out of here Vala, cloak us, and once we are clear jump us to another system." Mitchell ordered diverting all the power he could to the shields but his knowledge of the Goa'uld vessel wasn't as good as hers.

"Love to Mitchell, but if I cloak us we are sitting hens!" Vala exclaimed as the ship was hit by a heavy bolt and they were flung from their seats, a massive golden pyramidal ship was bearing down on them menacingly having dropped out of hyperspace.

"Another hyperspace window is opening!" Vala exclaimed frantically but the look of fear disappeared when she saw what dropped out, it was the _Odyssey_. The moment she dropped out lances of white hot plasma directly struck the armada that was surrounding them and they cut a path through the opposing ships.

"Cam the Portside F-302 bay is open, we can hold them off while you enter" said Daniel over an open broadcast, and Vala landed heavily inside the bay whilst the odyssey continued to fight back and cut the ranks of the Alliance. But they were safe and once they had landed the jumped away again.

Their mission was a failure but they had prisoners, and their own Tel'tak was still broadcasting but it also had further programming that was still in operation.

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	10. Chapter 10

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Ten**

**Ocean Floor**

The Higher planes were vast and all encompassing, it was here that the Ascended Beings resided, sworn only to watch and never interfere in the affairs of the mortal races.

One such being had watched over the planet Earth for a number of millennia, some would say that the being had a vested interest in its people. Long ago the being had arrived on the planet for the first time since his race had fled a great plague, but on their arrival had discovered that the humans that they had once been seeded to the planet were slaves to an alien race.

He had seen the potential of the people Earth first hand when one of their race had arrived over Atlantis the day before they returned to Earth, using technology that was forbidden by the Ancient Lantean Council.

Dr Elizabeth Weir had truly inspired many of the Ancient Lanteans, she was a compassionate woman but she contained a hard disposition when pushed and challenged. She had refused to return to Earth, she had wanted to return to her people in her own time.

She had willingly sacrificed herself so that her people could live, even though it meant the end of her own life. When the Ancient Lanteans had discovered the truth of why she had not arrived on Earth, many had petitioned to return for her, but Moros had refused the request.

Earth had been a harsh and uncivilised planet when they had arrived, using their influence the Lanteans had started to sow the seeds of civilisation across the planet. They had indirectly helped with the Goa'uld uprising and to their surprise four other individuals did the same and the Ascended Being has their own thoughts on where those four had come from.

When the Ancient Altera fled to Pegasus they had been few in number and had seeded life to the galaxy but the plague was still affecting them so they created the Ancient Lanteans using a point in their own evolution, but at a much more evolved state than what they had seeded in Avalon. The Ancient Lanteans were as close to the Ancient Alteran physiology as they could be without giving them enhanced gifts which would have made them susceptible to the plague.

The humans of Earth were legacy of the Ancient Altera and their children, they could trace their history to the Ancient Altera who originally seeded their species, then those same ancient people had created the Ancient Lanteans from their own genetics, creating less evolved copies of themselves and then they returned to Earth and passed on those genes to the humans of Earth to further help them in the future.

The Ascended had all watched as the people of Earth had rediscovered the Stargate and then unlocked the Gate Network across the now named Milky Way Galaxy, watched as they walked out into the universe for the first time and begun to find their place within it and rise to any threat or challenge that lay in front of them.

The people of Earth had been able to topple the System Lords, Replicators and the ancient enemy of the Ancient Altera, the Ori. Discovered their beloved city of Atlantis where they abandoned her at the bottom of an ocean and were fighting the war the Ancient Lanteans lost and had even discovered the legendry _Destiny_ on her mission to unlock the secret of the Universe.

The Ascended Being who had watched the humans for so long wondered just where the people of Earth would go now, he believed in their own way they were better than the Ancient Altera and Lanteans, but predominantly they were explorers just like Dr Weir had said and it made the Being proud.

"They are so young, but have come so far." Said a female voice next to the male ascended being.

"As I knew they would, I saw their potential in the mind of Dr Weir." He admitted sadly, "They truly are our children."

"Yes but they are not yet ready to be the Fifth Race." She proclaimed "Maybe in time, but that day has yet to pass."

"The Asgard were not wrong when they named them, our children are still growing and maturing. They are our children but already they are cleaning up the mess we left in our wake." He told her "You know I am right."

"The Asgard named them too early" she repeated firmly, but she was sympathetic to the humans, she was among the many with a vested interest in them.

"I do not think they had a choice." He said tiredly "Their bodies and minds were failing them, they could not have continued for much longer. The Four Great Races have all met their end."

"The Nox still linger," She pointed out.

"Only as a former shadow of themselves, they are reclusive and do not care for the goings on of this galaxy. The Ancient Altera have ascended, the Asgard are nearly extinct with only a renegade off-shoot alive in Pegasus, and do not speak to me of the Furling." He said with distaste not liking what had happened to those that had been their allies and friends.

"They left this Galaxy a long time ago," she agreed, "But it will take time to discover where they travelled to."

"We should do more." The male being declared declared "I hate watching but not being able to help."

"You know that you cannot, the Others will not allow it." The women said sternly "you know what would happen, you are possibly the most closest monitored of us all."

"Two of our brethren are locked in eternal battles, one is bound to a planet unable to help but a few humans, another's mind has splintered and will never recover stuck in the body of a human child. Another returned to the lower plain to destroy our ancient enemy only to sacrifice himself to make sure they met their end and no one tried to help him." Janus spat, "I want to do more, and our benevolence is so frustrating."

"Janus you cannot help them!" the women exclaimed "You know the risks."

"I tire of this existence Melia. Sometimes I regret choosing ascension." He said looking at Earth sadly.

"A time may come when the Ascended take to the mortal plane again, but for now you must be patient" Melia said quietly "You are not alone in your thinking, but the collective is against us."

"It would only –"Janus began but he stopped himself and looked off to the distance at a location that was so far away "Something is happening on Atlantis."

"I sense it to, we should leave." Melia said also sensing a disturbance one that they had not felt for a number of years.

Two white tendrils of energy dropped into the lower plane of existence and travelled to a planet with a Stargate which they used to travel to the Pegasus Galaxy providing the power necessary using their own powers.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

The city of Atlantis was mostly peaceful as its location was secret to all but the people who live in it; it was not often that the city population was running through its halls in terror. Four hours ago a great earthquake had rocked the entire planet. The city and settlement had felt the tremors but the earthquake had not caused any damage.

The quake however had caused four great tidal waves which had struck both the city and settlement. The city was protected by its shield which was powered by zpm's and provided the best protection and warded off the waves easily, the settlement however had been protected by a very strained shield which had been stretched further than its optimal distance in order to protect as much of the farmland and crops as possible and it had been a close thing as the traveller ships on the mainland struggled to provide the needed power all at once.

The city had moved as the waves had struck the shield and the connection to the drilling platform had been severed, the platform had also suffered minor damage that would take weeks of repairs by teams who could not easily access the areas needing to be repaired, there was also the problem of the current drilling crew being stuck on the platform without a way off.

"Rodney you should see this" Radek said from his computer where he was working through diagnostics of the city making sure there was no damage caused by the waves.

"There are many things that I need to see at this moment" Rodney said dismissively "The crew on the drilling platform are sending me data and I need to help to get it back online. We do not have the power to spare, you know that the Wraith have been in the area recently."

"Rodney, it's the underwater docking clamp."

"What about it?"

"We are detecting an error with clamp number four." Radek pointed out, "the mechanism has loosened and it cannot engage. It has shifted and fallen into the ocean floor."

"Well reset it" Rodney said waiving the concern away, "It happened a couple of weeks back, the internal mechanisms are probably out of sync."

"I tried, three times, it is broken, I think we should send a team down to repair it."

"No, the drilling station requires our immediate attention."

"The platform is on the way to the clamp, we could have a look at it first."

Rodney finally looked up and rolled his eyes, "Fine, you want us to take a look, we will. But I am telling you it is a waste of our time."

"Yes but if we needed to submerge the city we couldn't as without all clamps functioning the city would not be anchored to the ocean floor." Radek pointed out growing annoyed with Rodney's attitude and wondered if he had his coffee and snacks in the last hour, "You know I am right so why are you fighting me."

"Because I do not want to be down there much longer that I have to be! I almost died in that jumper that crashed."

"Yes but we found you." Radek stated but muttered to himself "Unfortunately"

An hour after this conversation a group was sent out to the ocean floor to investigate the fault before traveling on to the drilling platform; seven jumpers were dispatched by only five would stop at the clamps.

Rodney, John, Lorne, Larrin and Doctor Becket who was back in the city to go over new medical data from Earth, in the back of each Jumper was a Mark III naquadah generator to add additional power to the shields.

"Doctor McKay how certain are you that these little things will keep back the water?" Larrin asked, she had been given the gene therapy and could now fly the Jumpers but she did not like them and felt very vulnerable in them.

"Yes, the generators will give the extra needed power that we need to repair the clamps." Rodney explained "We will need to extend the field to push back the water around the area."

"You're sure we will be able to walk under the shield?" Becket asked "I feel a wee bit claustrophobic under this amount of water."

"With all five ships the shields power will be combined and lower the taxation on the emitters." Radek said over the radio, "You should be careful of the whale, it is coming around to your left."

"Don't worry about the whales they are harmless" Rodney said laughing "they are quite friendly really."

"It's odd that one is here now, its circling the clamp." Radek pointed out "reminds me of the one that circled you in your crashed Jumper Rodney."

"The whale is just here because we are" Rodney snapped not liking being reminded of his near death experience. "We are approaching the clamps now."

"Switch on all exterior lighting, would rather we didn't crash into anything." John ordered "let's see what is down here."

The Jumpers external lights switched on and the ocean floor could be seen a little clearer and they could see a great reef of coruscations and barnacles, according to the HUD it formed a perfect circle and was several meters high.

"What is all of this?" Larrin asked looking at the data the HUD was showing and looking at the formations through the window.

"Underwater organisms, they are created by the creatures that live here, back at home we have some great reefs." Becket explained "although I have never seen a formation like this. It's an odd place for it to form."

"This is where Atlantis sat for all those years since the Ancient Lanteans left until we arrived and this would have formed as the city slept." Rodney said "the damage would have been caused by the city rising from the ocean, breaking away parts that had formed over the shield, we might have damaged it when we submerged and risen to the surface over the years too."

"Rodney is there a particular formation we should take?" John asked "this shield had better work."

"It will, land where I have indicated on the map. This should maximise shield strength, all hatches should face the clamp." Rodney stated and he sent them a data packet containing instructions of where to land.

It took a minute for the jumpers to be settled down and then they activated the full power of their shields and drew power from the on-board generators and they utilised a shield matrix created McKay that caused all five ships shields to fuse with each other and form a very large bubble around the Jumpers and clamp and pushed back the water.

"Well Rodney, I think you might have outdone yourself" John said, he could clearly see the docking clamp, and it became clear that it was damaged, it had dislodged itself from the base unit that was installed to the ocean bedrock.

They lowered the rear access ramps and took hesitant steps out onto the ocean floor, it was wet and slippery and the floor had a number of odd looking fish flapping around gasping for breath.

"Rodney! Couldn't you have pushed the fish away with the shield?" Becket exclaimed looking at them with sadness.

"Well I am sorry I was more concerned with the millions of tons of water that could crush us to death!" Rodney snapped "You're a doctor not a vet, why do you care?"

"Rodney get over here!" John commanded breaking up their petty argument "You said this wouldn't take long, so how about you get started."

"Yes, yes okay." He replied and he pulled out his tablet and brought up a diagnostic system.

"How did it get damaged?" Larrin asked "I thought that Ancestor technology was very resilient."

"We might have damaged it when we left this planet a few years ago." Rodney said frowning as he clicked away "We damaged the drilling platform to, but –"

There was a loud noise above them and a great shadow passed over the shield.

"What is that!" Larrin exclaimed pulling out her particle magnum.

"It's a whale, it's probably Sam" Rodney said looking up, "What's he doing down here now?"

"Rodney, that shield will not keep a whale out will it" Becket asked looking up at the shadow.

"No, if it hits the shield it will collapse immediately,

"Can you fix this?" John asked agitated pointing at the clamp, "And is it a quick fix?"

"Yes, we will need a winch to pull it back into place." Rodney explained and he turned to look at Jumper four, "We have the winch, so get started."

The winch was hooked up to the clamp mechanism and the Jumper began to pull the large mechanism back into place, it was straining the winch but eventually it pulled away from the reef, but once it moved large sections of the reef broke off.

"Becket stop!" Rodney shouted loudly.

"What is it Rodney, did I break it?" Becket asked not trusting his use of technology.

"No, Sheppard there is something in the reef!" Rodney exclaimed drawing John's attention to what he was seeing.

True to his word there was something under the reef, and it was made of metal and glass although it was hard to make out as it was covered in crustations.

John rushed into the closest jumper and brought up the HUD and immediately saw data, and it made him raise his eyebrows, it was detecting seven metallic objects inside the reef and what shocked him more was the two life signs that was being detected.

"Atlantis this is Sheppard." John said bringing the communication system online.

"How can we help sir?" Chuck said "We didn't expect to hear from you."

"Get a message to the _Daedalus_, we are going to need their help."

They waiting for a minute before Chuck replied.

"They are on their way; it will take them thirty minutes." He advised.

"Tell them that to contact me when they are over our position" John ordered. "Sheppard out."

Whilst they waited they began to excavate more of the reef to see what they were looking at, and they unearthed a Lantean ship. It was not a jumper but the technology was similar, the cockpit glass had collapsed which had allowed the microorganisms into the ship.

There were no bodies but it was not surprising as they would have been eaten, but the technology was clearly Lantean but it was severely damaged, they had been able to locate a further two of the ships but couldn't access the ones with life signs.

"How can there still be lifesigns?" Larrin asked "If they are Ancestors they would be thousands of years old."

"Back home we found an Ancient Altera who was frozen but was able to survive in a kind of stasis, but we also found another Ancient Lantean, Moros who had been the high councillor of Atlantis before returning to Earth who had been in stasis for a long time and was alive." Becket said "But they will be weak, they can survive thousands of years in a properly powered stasis chamber but they will suffer the effects."

"So they could be true Ancestors?" she asked in wonder, "if that is true we need to help them, they may be able to help us."

"What I want to know is what type of ships are these?" John asked looking at it.

"Transport vessels" Rodney said walking out of the jumper "they are Ancient Transport vessels, they had a variety of uses and you can see they are larger than Jumpers meaning they cannot go through the gate, they travelled using FTL drives."

"Will the _Daedalus_ be able to lock onto the ships using transport beams?" Becket asked

"Yes, but we will need to create a signal they can lock on to." Rodney explained and he pulled his bag off his shoulder and pulled out a bunch of beacons, "we used to use these back when we didn't have the Asgard sensors but they can be used to tag the ships."

Twenty minutes later the _Daedalus_ arrived and they were able to lock onto the ships without the beacons and they were beamed directly into the beaming buffer and taken to Atlantis.

Rodney and the engineers managed to fix the docking clamp after a further thirty minutes and they were finally able to leave the ocean floor not a moment too soon as the generators were lagging and the power fading and they piloted them back to the city.

The _Daedalus_ had beamed the ships directly onto a pier and technicians and scientists streamed onto the pier to begin work. They were able to strip back all of the coral and sea life and they were finally able to access the rear compartments of the ship with the life signs.

The rear compartment had been flooded and damaged but inside they had found four pods that were obviously Lantean in origin.

The pods had been transported directly to the infirmary to be monitored by Doctors Becket and Keller. It was hoped that they would still be alive but Rodney had told them that it was unlikely as the pods were nearly dead, and without power it was unlikely that the occupants would be in good shape.

"Colonel Sheppard, We have uncovered the pods." Becket said over the radio, "you might want to get down here."

"I am on my way."

Doctor Keller and Becket looked over the pods, the technology was Lantean, but their scans told them that the pods power supply was nearly entirely depleted.

"Carson have you found any way to open them?" Jenifer asked walking over with a hand held device developed by Earth.

"No, but I think I might have an idea." Carson replied "this here looks like an interface panel."

He placed his hand to it and the pod lit up with bright blue light, which was immediately mirrored by the second pod and data began to stream to the monitors.

"Here we go." Carson said smiling "They are alive but barely."

"Carson!" Jenifer shouted alarmed.

Turning he saw that the pods lighting turned to red and the pods sparked before all light died on the pods.

"Life signs are no longer detected" Jenifer said using her scanner "but power is still registering?"

"I see that, but…" Carson began to say moving towards the other pod but green light sprang out of the pods and scanned the room once they detected the doctors another light beamed directly to their heads and they fell unconscious.


	11. Chapter 11

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Eleven**

**Ancient Slumber **

John walked into the infirmary expecting to find the two pods being studied by Doctor Becket and Keller but he was surprised to find that instead he found both doctors laid on beds hooked up the monitors unconscious.

"What happened?" he asked walking towards the team of medical personnel who were pottering around looking busy. "Doctor Phillips?"

"We're not sure; we found them unconscious next to the pods." He said looking up from his notes "We have only found one area of concern, take a look" he brought up an ongoing scan of the brainwaves of both doctors and it was immediately obvious that it was not usual.

"Well that cannot be normal." John commented, the activity looked unnaturally erratic.

"No its not, I cannot explain what is causing these brainwaves but the security footage was disrupted momentarily and there was an energy signature. I can only guess that these pods have done something, Doctor Beckett was attempting to open the pod when the feed cut. Now the pod systems are dead, as are the occupants."

"Doctor Phillips! Doctor Beckett is waking up!" said another medic.

Beckets eyes opened and he looked confused.

"Comdo asordo.!" he asked trying to get up "indeo Moros ut Janus?"

"Carson?" John said moving forwards to prevent his friend from getting up.

"Panitete nim operor non intellego" Becket said looking a John confused "tu quis es"

"Carson I don't… "John began but was interrupted by the doctor

"Colonel he is speaking Ancient" Doctor Philips said shocked.

"Lantea?" Becket exclaimed nodding "Atlantus?"

John nodded "You are on Atlantis."

Doctor Phillips repeated what he had said and more and got a long reply.

"Well?" John asked only understanding the odd word they said.

"This is Doctor Beckett but at the moment he is under the influence of the mind of an Ancient Lantean scientist named Atlas, he and his partner Melianna were in those pods." Dr Phillips told him "This was a failsafe in case the pods died."

John felt his blood freeze and memories of a previous accident involving a stasis pod downloading a consciousness into his own mind were brought back, as was the pain of loss, remembering Dr Weir.

"I am familiar with this technology" John said tightly "Why can't he speak English?"

"I – speak, not easy" Becket said and pointed at his head "mind is broken?"

"What do you mean?" John asked aghast "You have broken Beckets mind?"

Beckett or Atlas shook his head and said something in Ancient.

"He is not accustomed to our minds, they are less advanced than the Ancient Lanteans and the transfer was supposed to be used between the same species, from what he knows were are compatible but there are complications. But he can access Beckets memories."

"Doctor here" Atlas said pointing to his head "But not speaking he cannot."

"Now he speaks like Yoda!" John sighed.

"Speak more!" Atlas said "easier to learn."

"Who are you?" John asked "tell me how you came to rest under my city."

"I am Atlas, I was the Apprentice of Janus the leading scientific mind of Atlantis" he said "When the Council decided to leave this galaxy, my team and I were off world, we received the subspace message alerting us to the plan and we left our experiment to return to Atlantis."

"Our ships were detected by the Wraith and a battle was fought, there had been twenty three of our ships when we left our project but on arrival to Lantea we numbered only seven, and the ships were damaged, I myself had received a grave injury to my legs when the inertial dampeners overloaded and I was thrown from my seat. We expected to be in time for the evacuation and would be able to get help but when we saw the city it was in darkness."

"Our ships could not pass the shield and our ships detected a large fleet of Wraith above the surface. We knew that we had missed the evacuation so we decided to enter stasis and wait. The plan had been to evacuate and then return to Atlantis once our forces had been rebuilt, when they did the city sensors would detect our ships and we could be rescued. I can tell by the memories of Doctor Becket and your faces that my people never returned."

"No your people never returned to this city, they either died, Ascended, or integrated with the humans on Earth." John explained carefully "Earth is the planet where Atlantis was built and had fled the plague that had killed your Ancestors."

"You are from our home in Avalon?" he asked shocked "I have only heard stories of Terra, how long has it been since my people left? How did you find the city?"

John was able to give Atlas the basics of Earth history and the Lantean was obviously impressed.

"Here in Pegasus there were only a handful of planets that we helped advance to high technological races. You however have been able to rise faster and independently, you may have had help from the Asgard but your race is a marvel. It is remarkable." He commented smiling happily, "Have you met any of my people?"

"We met a number of your people when we discovered the Tria, it was traveling to Earth to meet the evacuees that used is sub light engines to return to Earth."

"Capatin Helia?" Atlas said with his eyebrows raised "but at sub light speeds it would take thousands of years, but then you get complications of relativity, bold move, but it is not surprising that she chose that course of action."

"Yeah and then she took back the city and sent us back to Earth" John told him.

"Foolish" Atlas replied and his eyes closed a little "I can see Doctor Becket's memories of her and what transpired on this city, the Asurans killed her because of her overconfidence. A trait that was too common among my people, that project should never have been undergone, Janus warned the council but they refused to listen."

"Excuse me Atlas? What should we do with Doctor Keller she was hit with the same energy as you" Dr Philips asked.

Atlas stood shakily and walked toward the unconscious doctor and pressed his hands delicately to her head and she immediately woke up.

"Atlas?" she asked in questioning tone.

"Melianna" he said nodding "It is I."

She looked up at the surrounded people and frowned looking confused.

"Our people are not here" he said sadly "I am sorry"

"Who are these people?" she asked in fragmented English.

"The seeded species of Terra and the Children of the Ancient Altera and Lanteans." He told her smiling "How are you?"

"I am fading, my chamber was damaged, my pattern is fading even now." She said and tears fell from her eyes, and she looked at John "Colonel Sheppard, please may I see my home one last time?"

"Where would you like to go?" John asked thinking of possible threats.

"The operations room, I would look out over the city before my life truly ends." She said, "Atlas come with me?"

Atlas nodded and held her had as they walked to the operations tower, Rodney saw them holding hands and looked confused and was about to say something until Melianna spoke to him.

"I am not who you believe me to be currently Rodney McKay, I am only in the mind of Doctor Jenifer Keller, do not worry she will not come to any harm."

Rodney only nodded stupidly not having a clue what was happening.

Melianna and Atlas stood on the balcony overlooking the city and the sea of Lantea, the settlement was visible in the distance which was not a sight that the Ancient Lanteans were used to.

"I have dreamt of this moment for thousands of years." She said sadly, "Atlas our people failed."

"Yes, but our children will not." He declared "look at the settlement, look how they have cared for us and this city, I can access this bodies mind and can see what they have done. They are our legacy, they will continue, they are our greatest success."

Melianna smiled sadly and nodded "You are right as always, I only hope that they will learn from our mistakes"

"They will." A disembodied voice said to them.

"Janus!" Atlas muttered quietly "I should have known you would be here."

"Thank you Janus you have made this easier." She said and as she closed her eyes her body slumped and was about to hit the floor but was stopped by Atlas.

"She has passed, her mind has left Doctor Keller's." he said to Atlantis staff as they rushed forward to assist sadly and he looked away back out at the city "I myself could last longer but without her I would rather not linger in this way, nor would that be fair on Carson Beckett.

"Is there nothing you can do?" John asked "Ascended?"

"Unfortunately that is beyond me, if I had been in my own body then perhaps but it would be impossible to do so from the body of another. The only reason I am here currently is because of a neural upload from the chamber, and in truth I am an echo of myself recorded within sophisticated technology, a data ghost if you will."

"I wish we could help you further." John said sincerely "it would help to have an Alteran here but as a Lantean you could do so much more."

"Alteran?" Atlas asked "You know of our forbearers and their origins, from the histories I was taught of Avalon I believed the term Ancients was used."

John nodded "to many your people were called the Ancients and the gate builders, but the people of Earth have learnt a great deal about you and race."

"Interesting." He replied and he closed his eyes and accessed Beckets mind and found what was currently known about his people and it made him smile. "You have learnt more about us than many ever have but your assumptions are not entirely accurate."

"Would you mind correcting us?" Rodney asked quickly looking very interested in learning more about the people who built the city he loved.

"Of course." Atlas replied calmly and he spent half an hour giving a brief history of the Altera and the Lanteans.

"You were created?" Rodney said blinking surprised after finding out that the Ancient Lanteans were created by the Ancient Altera to be lesser evolved genetic copies of their original bodies and then their minds were transferred to them, but they had died not long after leaving only their children. "So you are not the Altera?"

"Yes and no." Atlas frowned "Like your own species we were created from the template of the Altera just at a different point in the evolutionary history, we are the closets humans can be without the additional abilities that come from our evolution. I think our bodies were created from the template of the Altera not long after they arrived in the Milky Way, and it was enough to prevent us being effected by the Plague and allowed us to eradicate it."

Atlas looked at the stunned looks he was receiving from the Lantean people he had just met and realised that he had shocked them entirely.

"You are not the Ancients." John said sadly "But what is the gene that you used?"

"Gene?" Atlas probed not understanding.

"To use your technology we often need to have a gene that allows us to activate it." Rodney said "Like the interface chair."

"Oh, that was just a security measure we placed on our technology, the gene itself does come from the Altera, it was a marker in the genetic code that was created by accident and was unique to their physiology, we only inherited like you."

"Did you consider yourself to be just like the true Altera?" John enquired "Or did you feel like we do that we are just the next evolution of their kind."

"In a way we were them just in new bodies, they raised us to be them" Atlas shrugged it had happened long before he was even born.

"You must find this odd but our knowledge of your people has helped us in the past and even now we discover more and more. We even found the ship the Altera sent out called _Destiny_." Radek smiled "We found the address here on Atlantis."

"The _Destiny_ is still on its mission, after all these millennia?" Atlas asked in wonder.

"Well yeah, we have an expedition on the ship" John told him, "they are stranded currently but they are learning how to work the ship or at least so I am told."

"It is an ancient story that is told to all young Lanteans, the ship that was sent out into the stars to find the answer to the oldest question in the universe, a question that must be answered. A lonely ship that would endeavour to find that elusive answer." He said reminiscing, "My father would tell me the story of Destiny when it was time for me to sleep, and he always wanted to see it."

John nodded and stepped forwards to look out at the mainland and Atlas sensed that the man was more advanced than most others in the room, even his current body which had the gene was not as evolved.

"Can you not do anything, create a new body?" John asked frowning, "We could use the help of a true Ancient Lantean mentor or teacher."

"Not in the time that I have left." Atlas confessed sadly, he didn't want to die but his rational mind knew it was unavoidable, "Even here I would need more time than I have, but I can give you a gift. You have used Atlantis well, but it can be so much more if you allow it to be, you have learnt so much already from our fair city but there is so much more in here."

"Like what?" John asked and Atlas saw his eyes light up at the chance of learning more, he was a military man, that was clear from Doctor Beckets memories but he did care for other people and what he had accomplished on the city and mainland with three different races of humans showed that fact.

"Further access to the Atlantis Database, consider it a gift from an uncle." Atlas laughed at the absurdity of the familial ties between them.

He walked up the steps to the closest terminals to access the database, and sat for an hour going over pages of data before he entered a portion of the database that they had been trying to access since they found Atlantis.

"I have been reviewing your own entries into the database, and the cities analysis of you. I can see that your ships are small but they possess advanced technology that you have collected, developed and been gifted, your people are still young and have much to learn and you will need to develop you scientific understanding more."

"If I chose to I could give you untethered access to every page of our database, but to just give you full access would not allow you to develop your understanding of the science and theories in the database or in our technology. What I will give you are small amounts of information that will push you to research and developed new advances through the use of your own minds." He said firmly inputting the necessary programming to the database and adding other new subroutines that would eventually help them once criteria was met, "better to walk with full knowledge, than run and fall because of a lack of insight."

Atlas continued to work for some time and he brought up the research and instructions for the most common materials used in Ancient Lantean technology, he gave them information on the creation of crystal control technology, Naquadah research data, and partial access to the research into Hyperdrive technology, shielding and propulsion used by both the Ancient Altera and the Ancient Lanteans over the millennia, they already had the Asgard Core which would contain similar data so he felt he should give them some future prospects of combining Lantean and Asgard technology.

The last entries he unlocked for them was all of the data on Destiny. The ship was ancient but its schematics and entries had been transferred for eons with every upgrade to a database. The technology was vastly inferior to what they had later gone on to build but it was still advanced compared to most races but it had been the building blocks on which the Alterans built on to reach the level of technology in Atlantis.

"Not to sound ungrateful but what about the ZPM's?" Rodney asked hopeful "We have to hunt for them across the galaxy and almost never find one that isn't already depleted."

Atlas paused in his work and looked up at the Doctor who was avidly looking over his shoulder as he had been working watching the screen showed what he was accessing, he knew what a ZPM was from Beckets memories and it concerned him that the city would not be operated with the full compliment.

"You have not reached a level of technological or scientific knowledge that would allow you to have access to that information, I am not restricting you out of hand, that technology is dangerous if you do not fully grasp the theory behind it." Atlas said firmly and he made it known this was not a debate "I have inputted the gate address for the planet that I had been conducting my experiment, we were beginning to ready the planet for terraforming using an Exogenesis device."

"If you travel to that planet you can recover that device and learn from it and you will be able to terraform a planet in the future, but it needs vast amounts of power and that is why you will discover twelve ZPM's on that planet in labs that were to power the device and the process of making it fit for habitation. I should warn you that the planet surface is toxic and irradiated so you should approach with caution."

"Sorry did you say twelve?" Rodney spluttered looking like a little boy who just got his first bike for Christmas.

"Yes, do with them what you will but I would advise you to do so sparingly, you cannot create them or recharge them with your current level of scientific understanding of the device" Atlas said cryptically pointing them into a possible way of getting more use out of the empty containers.

"Recharge them? Is that possible? And what are the coordinates?" Rodney asked pouncing on this new information.

"You will need to work it out for yourself. Now I think I have imposed to long on Doctor Beckets body, thank you for your rescuing me and allowing me to say goodbye to Melianna, but I must leave you now. It has been a pleasure meeting you all and I hope that your people rise even higher than you already have as you are the greatest creation of our people" Atlas closed his eyes and his body collapsed.

"Get Beckett down to the infirmary" John said to Doctor Phillips, "Rodney I want your science teams to go other all the new database entries with a fine tooth comb! He has just given us a possible edge over the Wraith and we must use it, oh and find that planet as soon as possible."

John looked back out at the planet and saw that large clouds were forming and thunder trumpeted and rocked the air, lightning shot across the sky suddenly, it was not the first time sporadic storms had appeared over Lantea and for some reason John didn't think it would be the last.

**Higher plane - Lantea **

"Janus calm down" Melia said "you could not have helped them, we did not know they lived."

"I should have checked on them!" Janus said "I failed him."

"You did not, we did not know that his team lived, had we have known we could have tried to help him, the Others might have allowed it."

Janus shook his head, "They would not have allowed it as Atlas was my son!"

"No, they would not prevent it just for that reason. You know they do not like us helping people ascend look at how they have punished Oma over these long years for what she did unknowingly."

"One of these days the Others will have to realise that the rules are wrong."

"They are not wrong, we are not the Ori." Melia said and fixed him with a sorrowful look, "We cannot become what they were, even if it means people suffer. It is the truth and you know that."

"Well if I cannot help Atlas to ascend, there is someone who I can help." Janus said cryptically and he transformed and sped away from Lantea, he was looking for something that he knew would probably get him in trouble but today he did not care.

He found himself where he needed to be and using his power as an ascended being to change the fabric of the lower plane, in front of him light poured out of a being, and they ascended after years of being stuck, they were free now of their mortal coil.

"Hello again" he said to the person in front of him.

"Who are you?" they asked confused by their newfound freedom and form.

"In another lifetime we met" Janus said smiling "But for now you are the first step in my plan. But my name is Janus."

"You are the scientist, it was you" they said surprised "She said you liked to break the rules."

"I do, but only when they need to be broken." He said smiling "Now we need to move before we are found."

"But why did you do this, why help me?" they asked shocked knowing the rules of the Ascended beings from what she had read over the years.

"Because I felt you deserved it, and the universe needs people like you." He told her "you are respected even to the other Ascended beings."

"Where do we go now?"

"Now we allow you to see those that have missed you greatly" he said to the women in front of him "It has been a long time since you have truly seen them, and I think you will be surprised."

The two ascended beings left the cold vacuum of space and travelled to Atlantis where they observed the people without being seen, the other ascended beings new what Janus had done but had done nothing to punish him yet.

When the women saw who was sitting in the chair that had been hers so long ago she smiled.

"John, I knew you were special when we first met, but never did I think you would take that chair." She said happily. She walked behind him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder as he sat reading over a report, the office was not tidy and she could tell that he did not like where he was but he persevered.

"He took control of the city when the IOA decided to abandon this galaxy, and destroy the city. He stole it and brought it back where it belonged." Janus explained knowing she would not know their recent history and he had followed it closely "he has led your people well, the Athosians and the people known as Travellers are now part of a new Lantean Society."

"He is a remarkable man." She said "I am proud of him"

John shivered and touched his shoulder like he knew she was touching it.

"He is a good man, when he returned the city he was able to fly the city for a considerable amount of time, I never knew it was possible to stay in the chair for so long." Janus said and it had impressed him greatly as he followed their progress through hyperspace, "If he had been born on Atlantis when we controlled it he would have been a great ship captain and probably on our council."

"Where shall we go now?" She asked, she could feel the other ascended beings watching her and Janus closely and it made her uneasy.

"Now we have to travel a long distance to find someone I think you might have met before." Janus said devilishly, "Are you ready?"

She looked at the city, she saw all of her friends but she knew they could not see her, but she did not mind for she could finally look at them without wondering if they were her own thoughts. She was about to leave when she caught sight of herself in the reflection of the glass in front of her, and saw her own face staring at herself.

Ascended beings could see themselves in mirrors and reflective surfaces even if mortals could not, but a part of her mind wondered if this explained how some people would swear they saw something in a mirror that was not there at all.

But there was one thing the women knew for certain, she would return, and Atlantis was her home.

She turned back to John "I will see you again soon John, you can count on that."

"Come Elizabeth, there is a great deal of work to do." Janus said and he held out a hand for her to take,

"Then let us begin" Elizabeth Weir replied and she took his hand and they left the City.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! Added to Favourite and Communities please!

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	12. Chapter 12

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**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Chapter Twelve**

**Comets Path**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Hilipta – Lucian Alliance Farming Planet**

Whilst the battles with the Wraith occupied the Atlantis Expedition, the Battle against the Lucian Alliance still plagued the Milky Way.

The Free Jaffa Nation had managed to rebuild a capital on Dakara which rivalled the previous and the new form of government was taking shape, relations between Earth and the FJN were not at their best, Earth had once been a staunch ally, but now the IOA had decided that it was time for the FJN to stand on their own.

The IOA's decision was not fully abided by, the _Hammond_ and_ Odyssey_ often visited Dakara their captains were friends of the Jaffa and tried to help when they could, a decision that the SGC supported unofficially. The FJN had also chosen to update their fleet, Bra'tac had made sure that the traditions of the past were stuck to but he wanted the symbols of the Goa'uld was eliminated.

Jaffa Ha'tak class vessel had undergone a redesign and had seen a number of changes.

The golden pyramid of old had been removed entirely, the black outer shell of the vessels had remained and had been expanded to fill the void of the pyramid. The ship was better armoured than the previous variants of its class. Older ships had been stripped of the golden walls and statues to false gods and been retrofitted with the new décor the Jaffa now preferred.

Other than appearance the ship was mostly the same, the FJN did not possess much in the way of innovation, their culture was still being changed and they adjusted to being free and self-governing.

On the other side of the Galaxy the Tok'ra were also building their own home world and fleet. Their capital was a sight to behold, during their war with the Goa'uld they had used their crystal technology to create subterranean tunnels to conceal their existence, but now free of oppression they had built a great city.

They had built a large stone pyramid on the desert planet, it was made of smooth white and black stone, its interior now contained the full written history of the founding of the Tok'ra and their efforts to free themselves and destroy the System Lords. They had many virtual images of important events also shown to give a full and detailed history.

Two entire floors was dedicated as a memorial to the Tok'ra that had fallen during their patient uprising, the pyramid whilst a symbol of the Goa'uld was kept as the Tok'ra were the same species who had a different philosophy in life but that was where similarities ended. They had created crystal towers to house their small population but the city to some from Earth resembled Atlantis.

The planet was not well known to the Galaxy as they had moved the gate from another planet; they were still a cautious people and continued to hunt down the minor system lords who were still alive.

Earth and Tok'ra relations had deteriorated dramatically over the year and had become almost not existent in the last sixth months. Their former agreement for possible hosts for the Tok'ra symbiotes had been voided by a new law that the IOA had pushed through preventing alien races enslaving any citizen of Earth, the IOA had never found the agreement pleasing and they had never hidden their disgust and so the Tok'ra had taken offence and stopped all contact.

Earth however had received some intelligence from their contacts of a new class of ship being seen in the galaxy, and they had sent out a ship to scout these new vessels and discovered that the Tok'ra had developed a fleet of motherships that rivalled the technology Anubis had used.

The ships were much longer and still contained a pyramidal design, unlike the Hat'ak which used a four sided golden pyramid; the Tok'ra ships had a white three sided pyramid that that was very wide. Tok'ra technology was far superior to that of the FJN and they had fitted their ships with new shield and hyperdrive technology.

The ships weapons however are what marked the ships as an entirely new class of ship, formally all Goa'uld ships had used staff cannons, now they had been fitted with powerful ion cannons which the SGC and Homeworld command believed came from the designs of the fallen Tollan.

The FJN and Tok'ra had created an alliance between themselves pledging mutual support against the Lucian Alliance as they sought to control the planets that fell within their territories, both of the races knew the Alliance were devoting their attention to Earth but with each ship that was destroyed they would soon want to replenish their fleet and they seemed to prefer to steal rather than build new ones.

The Alliance itself had grown further in numbers and strength, since the failed ambush of _Elizabeth II_ and the failed coup on the _Odyssey_, they had been able to take over many planets that fell under Earths protection and with the Asgard dead they could not enforce the old treaty. Of course it helped that Earth Governments were ignoring the treaty, but had allowed alliance to further their own agenda.

Earth was in a state turmoil as the governments could not agree on a course of action and with the financial crisis that was hampering investment into the Stargate program, the Alliance had attempted four attacks on Earth all of which had been stopped by the ships in orbit but it was becoming hard to hide the existence of life in the universe from the general populace.

President Hayes had nearly been assassinated by an Alliance infiltration cell but they had not been able to gain further information from him as he had been killed by the Secret Service.

General O'Neill sent the _Odyssey_ and _Hammond_ to planet that they had received intelligence on, it was said that four Alliance Commanders were meeting, two of which were key members of the Alliance, the intelligence suggested they were the fourth and fifth in command of the entire Alliance.

The planet was a rich green planet where they were growing Kassa, and its inhabitants were also hooked on the plant and forced to farm it by the Alliance.

The _Odyssey_ and _Hammond_ dropped out of hyperspace and were started by what they saw, five Alliance ships one of which was a mother ship of the Apophis-Class design. The moment they left hyperspace the Alliance ships powered towards them as fast as they could.

"Sam do we engage? Cam asked over the radio.

"We don't have a choice." She replied "We need to strike at the Alliance but I am detecting odd power signatures from that mothership."

"Okay well let's go weapons hot." Cam said and turned to his weapons officer. "All Asgard weapons are to target that mother ship now. Rail guns target the other vessels."

"Yes sir" the officer said and immediately lances of plasma energy shot from his ship and Sam's and hit the mother ship head on.

But the ships shields did not buckle under the power of the weapons.

"Sir their shields are holding!" the officer said shocked "Detecting only a decrease in strength."

"Sam!" Cam called over the radio

"Yeah I am as shocked as you –"she said "my sensors are also picking up a cloaked cargo ship fleeing the system."

"With the ZPM augmenting the Odyssey I should be fine, get that ship and find out who is on board." Cam told her.

"Okay, this shouldn't take long" Sam responded and her ship manoeuvred away from the battle but the ship was still targeted by the Alliance.

"Sir they have released gliders!" the helmsman announced.

"Well guys and girls we will just have to hit them where it hurts." Cam said smiling "All F-302's engage the gliders. Get us close to those ships and be ready to loose missiles, rail guns open fire and plasma beams target the mother ship that should bring its shield strength down.

The Ha'tak and Al'kesh were firing consecutive bolts of energy at the ship but the shields held but were slowly losing strength under to barrage of weapons fire, but they had managed to destroy seven Al'kesh easily.

"Shield strength on the mother ship is fluctuating sir, but I am detecting a powerful energy surge." The Helmsman announced.

"Keep all batteries firing on that ship; it should be weak enough to penetrate now." Cam stated and true to his word the mother ships shields broke under the stress of a twelfth plasma beam.

"Sir the energy is still building in the ship" the officer said

"Okay, get us out of here, emergency sub light speed!" Cam ordered "Transfer all power to sub light engines, cut power to rail guns and transfer power to the Plasma beams fire on the remaining ships in quick succession."

"Cam we have caught the cargo ship, it tried to jump to hyperspace but I locked onto it with a transport beam." Sam reported but the mothership exploded and the shockwave was powerful, causing the ship to lurch and sparks exploded out of consoles all over the bridge and the ship came to a dead stop as power to the sublight engines cut out.

The _Odyssey_ was in bad shape, the ZPM interface had overloaded causing a massive build up in the ships systems and conduits and the backlash of energy build up and affected almost every system on the ship, and they struggled to engage even the shields again.

Vala sat at the controls of the shield emitters on the bridge and poured as much power as she could into the emitters and extended them so they could compensate for those that were no longer functioning, without the ZPM only the ships Naquadah engines were powering the shield and the emitters were already overtaxed.

"Mitchell I've bought us time but not much" Vala called "If ever you needed a plan now would be it."

"Understood" Cam said "Sam, can you give us a hand?"

"We are coming up behind you now Cam" Sam replied almost immediately.

"Sir _Hammond_ is directly above us and is getting closer" the officer said alarmed "What is it doing?"

"Sam?" Cam asked unsure.

Above _Odyssey_ the _George Hammond_ manoeuvred so it was directly over it, they were very close and it was possible to see the crew in the windows of the ship, the _Hammond_ extended is shields, further than Cam thought possible and wrapped them within their own shied, and a lance of blue light shot from the underbelly and hit their shield.

"Cam, I need you to extend your shield like I have." Sam instructed "Then I will jump us to hyperspace."

"Vala?" Cam asked looking at the former Goa'uld host.

"Don't ask me, I am out of my depth darling" she said and was quickly replaced by an air force officer who complied and Hammond's tractor beam hit the ship and they began to move.

"Sir the remaining Alliance vessels energy is spiking even higher now and it is at critical levels, I think it is unstable and is going to detonate."

"Sam Jump us out of here now!" Cam almost shouted through the radio.

"Opening Hyperspace window now!" Sam said and the window to subspace opened and the two ships flew into it and were enveloped in the blue swirling mass of subspace but not before the final ship exploded creating a greater shockwave than the first ship.

"Cam you should know that this had probably knocked us off course" she said "The shockwave will have altered are trajectory."

"Understood, now tell me who you found in that cargo ship?" he asked hoping it would be some good news.

"Matthew Riley, a scientist with the IOA" she told him.

"Now why is a member of the IOA out in these neck of the woods" Cam asked "consorting with the Alliance?"

**Milk Way Galaxy – Earth**

Whilst the _George Hammond_ and _Odyssey_ were on its mission, the _Sun Tzu_ had been sent to planet to pick up a consignment of trinium and Naquadah from their mining outpost to begin construction of a new ship, whilst the _Apollo_ was currently on a mission flying through the Sol system performing a series of scans on all of the planets in the system.

They were within the dust clouds of Saturn and their sensors could not see anything out of the planets cloud bank, they were looking for any rare materials or minerals in a hope of understanding neighbouring planets better, they would eventually try to sweep over Mars but as it was monitored by Earth closely the chances of being detected were higher.

If the _Apollo_ had been in orbit over Earth it would have been able to warn them of three objects that appeared seemingly out of now where and plumed into Earth's Atmosphere and became great balls of fire as they travelled at great speed and caused mass panic over the countries they travelled over, luckily all by one had burnt up but one had crashed into the Earth.

_**Earth - Nevada - Allied Stargate Technology Development Division (Area 51)**_

It had been twenty hours since the three consecutive comets had flown over Earth and the SGC and Homeworld Command were still no closer to discovering why they had had no warning of these events.

General Jack O'Neill had immediately ordered a full investigation into the malfunction of Earths Long Range Sensors that had failed to detect the comets, and then had conveniently turned off when they hit the atmosphere. But the investigation did not stop there, at the same time as the sensors were turned off the hundreds of satellites, radar stations and even telescopes around the planet had failed to spot the oncoming comets, it was like they appeared out of nowhere.

Jack was of the opinion that this was possibly a failed attempt to strike Earth by the Lucian Alliance, but whilst the attack failed it worried many of the senior members of Homeworld Command that their systems could be deactivated when the Alliance needed them to. The hunt for informants had come up short, they knew they did not find them all and Jack believed they were silently waiting even now to stab them in in back.

As part of the investigation into the comets the geeks at Area 51 had sent a full contingent of scientists to the British Isles where the only recoded had occurred in the Scottish Highlands. But once they had landed they were not able to go much further as British authorities refused to acknowledge their requests for access to the site.

Eventually the team had been able to leave the airport once strings had been pulled politically but when they arrived at the site and found that it had been cordoned off by the British Army. They had refused to allow them to enter the site and no amount of political pressure had bent the British to allow entry.

The British Prime Minister Elliot Cavendish had told the IOA, US, Russian and Chinese that the British Army and the MOD would investigate as the impact had happened on their soil and pointed out that they had no authority over British affairs.

In Ireland and India where the other two comets had passed over, the same response was given. No remnants of those comets had been found but they were following the British example of not being pushed around by the IOA.

All three nations had samples taken from the crater and they had been given to the Science team from Area 51. They had then been escorted to the closest airport by a private military force in SUV's and hastened onto a plane that was waiting for them.

The British ruled that it was just a stray comet and it was a miracle that it had not hit a residential area. Further enquiries would be ongoing but they felt that there was no further danger, the private military were from Britain's Stargate personnel and they would be containing the site.

One of the scientists who had been sent to Britain was Dr Bill Lee, a specialist in alien technology who was currently stationed at Area 51 to develop a new standard weapon for SG teams and the fleet personnel. During the course of the program they had encountered the Goa'uld Zat'nik'tel and Ma'Tok staffs, Ori staff weapons and stun weapons, the Traveller Particle Magnum, Asuran pistol, Plasma pistols and even the Wraith energy weapons.

All Earth had been able to develop was the X-699 and it was a crude and bulky weapon that would not be used in standard combat. Bill was attempting to find a way of replicating the technology for mass production but so far he had not made any headway.

His tests on the samples of space rock and residue had confirmed that the rock was indeed a standard piece of space debris, and it matched other known debris that had fallen to Earth in the past but the samples would not give any further information so Dr Lee chose to look on the internet for more information but found only UFO fanatics who were posting about the rare event.

But what Dr Lee found strange was that there were no images or videos anywhere of the comets entry into the atmosphere, he checked social networking sites and video sharing sites but found no results. Online chatter had been loud and some were blogging about how there was no visual evidence of the event and wondered if it was being covered up.

The comet had plummeted to the Earth very fast and Lee thought it unlikely that there would be footage of its entry but he wondered why nobody had thought to take a picture, but he did not think that anything was being covered up, since there was no proof of a space ship re-entry.

One online blogger had posted an article that caught his attention.

_**Fireball crashes in Scotland, government says that it was a comet, but it looked like a UFO!**_

_**I saw the fireball plummet to Earth, and I swear that it was not a piece of space rock, its form was too rounded and smooth to be natural, before I could even think to get a picture of the space craft it had crashed up the road.**_

_**When I managed to get up to the site it had already be blocked by a private military force dressed all in black. I tried to get closer but they threatened to have me shot or imprisoned.**_

_**The UK Government is covering up alien occurrences; this is another in a long string of sightings they have covered up, alone with the alien entity that lives in Loch Ness! We must protest the freedom of information is our right!**_

Under the small blog post was a link to further information of the UK's private military and another odd occurrence a month previous at the same site.

"Ah this is interesting" Bill said happily, hoping to get a look at the comments. He pressed the link but the page failed to load, and was not found. He attempted to go back to the original page and found that it had changed slightly with all mentions of private military removed.

Warning bells sounded inside his mind, he thought that someone was censoring information and whilst that was not impossible, and was often used to hide the Gate Program, he wondered why it would happen to hide references to private military.

He tried to find more information on this private military force in the UK but found no information on it, even the CIA and intelligence services did not have any information, so he focused his attention on trying to find more information on the comets and attempted to find information on the other two but found that even they seemed to only exist on blogs.

Frustrated that he couldn't find anything, he tried the Allied Intelligence Network that was used to monitor for Alliance spies and Goa'uld infiltration, it was also used to monitor the former NID members, but there was no information, which was not that odd anymore the collaboration of intelligence was no longer as good as it had once been, he tried to directly accessing the British Network Servers using his old pass key but his access had been revoked.

He did find one result on the Allied Intelligence Network and that was for an event that had happened the month before in Scotland where a military base had suffered from a communication blackout and every system had been destroyed using an EMP.

Whilst it was common knowledge that the event had happened, the files that contained the reports were not readily available and were protected by an encryption that one of the most sophisticated that he had ever seen, and his two attempts to break it only came back with a message.

==**TORCHWOOD**==

_ACCESS DENIED_

"Torchwood? Now where have I heard that name?" Bill questioned, he tried performing a search on the word but found only mentions of a TV series and its fans who believed it was real and was conducting alien research secretly in Cardiff, Wales. Finally defeated he wrote up a report that he would submit to Homeworld Command the next day. He locked his computer and turned the screen off and left his lab to go home.

As he opened the lab door he failed to notice his computer turn back on and bypass the password protection, but he had also failed to notice that the red webcam light had been lit since he began digging into the comet data. The computer executed a full purge of all information that the Dr had found on the comets online, the websites he had visited and the message he had found that denied him information, and finally deleted his report before rebooting and displaying only the test results for the rock and turning back off.

_**Earth - United States Listening Station**_

The listening post was used to monitor all electronic signals that were used on Earth that could be accessed. Developments of technology acquired through the gate program were prohibited due to international law but mobile phones were not as advanced as some of the new technology used to prevent discovery.

One transmission was picked up originating from Canada and was sent across the globe and became untraceable.

"_This is Greyhound twelve, send a message to the Titan; we need to be more careful."_ A young female said with a Canadian accent.

_"Do we have a problem?"_ A second voice asked with authority.

_"No, my team will continue to keep things quiet, but we cannot silence everything, we have been noticed. Do we know what happened? "_

_"Understood, I will alert Blackhawk, it will be dealt with"_ the senior voice said and ignored the question.

_"Tell him that the new tech will be sent to him too, it will allow for faster project growth."_

_"I am aware; now get of this line it is not secured."_

The communication ended there and the American analyst wrote a report for his boss in hopes of a good lead but the information would only be filed away in favour of a lead on Alliance operatives who were situated in a powerful Utility company that operated across half the States of America.

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	13. Chapter 13

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Thirteen**

**Tria's First Blood**

**Pegasus Galaxy - Lantea - Atlantis**

Teyla stood looking over the great city that she called home; it has been a long six years but she had great hope for the future, Torren was nestled in the crook of her arm sleeping peacefully and she rubbed his head absently.

He was so happy here, which was very different from the small boys father, Kannan was rather restless still. He refused to live on the city and preferred to be on the mainland with many of the Athosians. Sometimes Teyla felt like he was their leader rather than she but then she considered herself a true Lantean of their society.

Of all her people she knew she had changed the most, freely giving herself to fight the Wraith with the help of the people of Earth. She wondered what would have happened if the expedition had not dialled Athos that fateful day, how many of her people would have survived, or would they have all been culled.

Torren suddenly began to cry startling her, the boy was hysterically screaming at the top of his voice.

"Torren?" she asked but her head snapped up looking to the sky "Wraith!" she hissed and she ran as fast as she could towards the control room.

When she arrived she startled them all.

"Teyla?" Amelia asked stepping from behind her station "Are you okay?"

"I sense the Wraith, Torren does too" She stated clearly "They are here."

"That's not possible" Chuck said frowning at her "We would have seen them on the sensors."

"I am telling you, I sense them." She told him glaring at him and he looked away from her unable to hold her gaze.

Amelia walked away quietly and walked into John's office where he was speaking to Mr Woolsey.

"Show me the sensor readings." Teyla asked Chuck.

"Of course." He said hastily and he brought up the data and it showed that the Lantean System was entirely clear, "It's clear, Teyla there are no Wraith."

"Teyla what's going on?" John asked her walking towards them frowning with concern.

"I sense Wraith, as does Torren." She stated "I can – "

She didn't continue as there was an urgent broadcast from the mainland.

"Colonel, I have Giali with an urgent message." Chuck said and the screen showed a Lantean security officer, recruited from the Travellers, but he was surrounded by seven Athosians.

"Giali what is it?" Sheppard asked.

"We have a number of the Athosian settlers who are claiming they know the Wraith are near." He reported, "Are you aware?"

"We have also been alerted." John told him "keep clam, we are looking into this."

"Very well, I will try to keep the settlers calm." Giali said nodding and the transmission ended.

"Are you finding anything on the city sensors?" Woolsey asked "We have never known the Athosians to be wrong,"

"No, the sensor sweeps have come back empty." Chuck explained "look."

The screen showed the sensor readings again and he was right there was nothing there.

"The _Deadalus_ is out at the Alpha site, and all but three traveller ships are out in the galaxy on missions." John said rubbing his jaw "If there are Wraith I don't want to use the cargo ships."

"The _Tria_ is still docked on the city." Amelia pointed out "It doesn't have the hyperdrives but it does have sublight."

"Larrin!" John said over the radio.

"Sheppard?" she replied "What is it?"

"I need you on the _Tria_ now." He ordered "We may have Wraith in the System."

"I am on my way with a crew. Will you be joining us?" she asked and she could be heard running.

"No, But Lorne will be joining you." He said, "I want that ship in the air in three minutes."

"Understood, any idea where they are?" she asked

"No, but you are to sweep the entire system." He ordered and cut the radio signal on his ear.

"Where are Doctors McKay and Zelenka?" Woolsey asked

"They are off world; Zelenka is installing a Mark III naquadah generator to the children's planet." Teyla answered trying to sooth her crying baby.

"Rodney is with Dr Keller back on Earth." John answered "Which is where you should be Woolsey, go you have been summoned by the IOA."

"I do not think this is the time to leave." Woolsey pointed out

"No, the IOA has ordered you to return and so you shall, I do not want them coming here" Sheppard said shrugging, "And whilst you are there please ask them to release the money for a new Midway station."

"I will try but I do not think they will agree." He said and he nodded to Chuck who began the dialling sequence for Earth.

A number of minutes passed before the _Tria_ communicated to them.

"Sheppard we have done a sweep of the system and there are no contacts" Larrin reported "You are certain that Teyla's people can sense the Wraith."

"Yes," John said distractedly, and he looked at the sensor data. "What is that?" he asked pointing.

"Sir?" Chuck asked

"That there." Sheppard said pointing to a slowly moving dot.

"That is the asteroid belt." He said, "It occasionally moves."

"In this direction?" he questioned and the dot was slowly moving towards them through the belt.

"No that is not usual" Chuck responded and he focused the sensors on the belt and suddenly a signal was detected. "There is a something on a large asteroid."

"Larrin! We have detected the Wraith, sending you the coordinates." John said and he pressed the console and did as he said "Be careful, I do not know how they found us but they have been able to keep out of sight for this long, we do not want any more surprises!"

"Understood."

The moment the _Tria_ was in range of the asteroid belt they were hit by weapons fire.

"It's a cruiser that is buried in the rock" Larrin reported, "do we destroy it?"

"We don't have any choice!" John said "Activate prototype VD6655 now!"

The prototype was activated and the city detected a slight disturbance in subspace and their communications were temporally knocked out. It was a technology that they had developed in secret; it could be used to block Wraith telepathy and stop subspace messages. It was crude but effective.

"It is done." Larrin reported ten minutes later when the communications were restored.

"Salvage what you can." John said and he turned to Chuck and Amelia, "You two speak with the science teams, I want to know how that ship entered this system without detection."

They nodded and walked off, Sheppard walked back to his office and sighed. He opened his top drawer and saw a bottle of whiskey that he kept there but he felt like someone was placing a hand on his own and he pushed it closed.

He wondered if it would always be like this, he needed company. Larrin had become a partner of a kind but she was not what he needed but a welcome distraction from his command. For the second time that day the alarm for an unscheduled off world activation sounded.

"IDC?" he asked resigned

"Yes, it is Captain Litilia of the Travellers" Chuck said and he added "One of the roaming ships."

John nodded, three Traveller ships had left Atlantis permanently, and there had been nothing that Larrin or John could do to prevent it, but it was there choice and he begrudgingly accepted it.

"Lower the shield!" John ordered and five seconds later a middle aged captain walked through the gate.

"Colonel" she said in greeting "Is Larrin here?"

"She is searching this system." He responded "I had not expected to hear from you, you made it clear you did not want help from Atlantis."

"I did not wish to form a Lantean Society." She said stiffly "But we share a common interest."

"And what is that?" he asked politely.

"The Wraith destroyed and the freedom and protection of my people – our people" she corrected herself.

John nodded and gestured for her to follow him to his office and they took a seat, and regarded her carefully, of the four captains that had left Lantea, she was his least favourite.

"Why have you come?" he asked

"I have information." She answered.

"And what is that information." He questioned raising his eyebrow.

"I want medical supplies" she bartered

"The agreement between our peoples stated clearly that information would be passed freely" John reminded her "It is in the best interest of your people to share information with us."

"It is also in my people's interest to have medical supplies." She commented

"Either you tell me what you have, or get out of this city" John snapped "You will not barter with my peoples safety and I will remind you that many of your own people call this city home!"

She regarded him carefully "You are a military man, certainly not a negotiator. But you are right."

"What is the information?"

"Our ships were scouting a planet for scrap when we detected four vessels drop out of hyperspace." She said "This planet had been culled entirely and so no ships should have been there."

"Wraith, they must have detected your ships." John said wondering why this was so important.

"That is just it Colonel, they were not Wraith." She said pointedly "my ships computers could not recognise them but one of them did, it was a species I believe that you have met in the past."

John knew who she was talking about, he knew of only two races that had access to hyperdrive technology and one of them was far superior to Earth in technology.

"Did they wear metal armour?" he asked

"Yes, they managed to severely damage one of our ships but they seemed to only want the data in our databanks." She said "We need urgent repairs."

"I will spare a repair crew, but you will not have medical supplies, we cannot spare them" he told her "We will also install the tracking devices into your ships including an emergency beacon in case your ships are in trouble." He told her "But I will warn you that our recourses are spread thin and I cannot afford to keep patching up your ships."

She nodded and stood "I should return to my ship."

"Where are your ships?" he asked

"These co-ordinates" she said pulling out a piece of paper.

"I will be back in a moment." John said and he walked into operations and had Amelia put the coordinates through the city systems to find the Lantean coordinates. He saw that they were for a star system that the AR Teams had never explored but he knew the area, he picked a planet that was unpopulated and had the coordinates changed into Traveller standard.

With these in hand he returned to the captain.

"Be at these coordinates in five days and my team of techs will be there." He said sternly "Now I believe you should leave, I have a team to prep as I have been looking for those beings for some time."

The captain left quickly and once the gate closed down he had AR-1 readied and sent to the planet where the Travellers had been ambushed for any signs of where the Vanir were hiding, he was in the middle of their brief when the gate activated from Earth.

The _Odyssey _and _George Hammond_ had gone missing and they requested that the _Daedalus_ return to Earth in case it was needed. John had declined to send the ship, stating that Earth had the _Apollo_ and the _Sun Tzu_, they only had one ship and they could go without the _Apollo_ for some time, O'Neill had told him that the ship could remain temporarily but they may call it back in a week if the ships had not returned.

What John didn't tell Stargate Command was that sixteen Hive ships were detected on the long range sensors, one of the largest groups to come near Atlantis is months and he was worried. He had no way of knowing what their intention was and he did not want to force a confrontation. They were two months away and he was hoping that they would change direction but the military in him told him they would attack the city soon.

The _Tria_ was not a fully functioning ship, they had gutted the hyperdrive systems from the ship and had taken to studying them further and their understanding of the technology had grown but they were not sure what was damaged, what worked and what was entirely useless yet.

Not to mention the _Tria_ did not have a ZPM to help power her, meaning she only had a limited supply of drones with the Grodin weapons not operational due to lack of sufficient power, they had discovered that the power generators built into the ship were not operating at full capacity, the Ancients had burnt them out traveling to Earth.

He left his office wearily, he wanted his bed and to block out the days stress.

"Sheppard" said a voice from behind him and he knew who it was and closed his eyes.

"Larrin, fancy meeting you here." He said in a low voice "I had thought you would still be on the _Tria_."

"She is back in the pier with your technicians bustling all over, I couldn't concentrate." She said walking closer "Besides I can think of something else to occupy my time."

Sheppard raised his eyebrow and ran his hand over the door control and his door opened to his quarters, "Well I think I can oblige" he said and Larrin smiled and slid between him and the door to enter.

"Well tonight should be interesting." He said dryly and he followed her in.

**Three weeks later – Pegasus Galaxy – M912-PL7**

Atlantis was abuzz with activity, Sheppard had sent out every AR team he could spare looking for the planet that Atlas had mentioned where he said there were twelve ZPM's lying in wait and he was determined to find them.

He had hoped that the address to the planet would be easy to find if Atlas had just added it but it seemed he hadn't, as they could not find any new addresses in the database and it made it harder to find, but they had one clue, the planet was not habitable and was toxic.

They were using that as a basis for whittling down possible addresses, but it was slow going, especially as each planet would need to be searched thoroughly in case the ZPM's were depleted of power since they also wanted the exogenesis device.

They believed they had found the planet, and Atlas's warning had been on the mark, the atmosphere was dangerous and once they had arrived they had realised that the sand on the planet was corrosive and they teams had retreated back to the city as there protective clothing has been eaten away at.

The _Daedalus_ was sent in place of a team and it seemed that it was correct planet, it was devoid of life which made it easier for the ship to locate the ZPM's, they could detect their power signature once they entered the atmosphere.

Rodney had been gated to the planet when four Ancient bunkers were identified and the _Daedalus_ beamed him from the gate directly into the bunkers so he could find out what happened to the device.

"Doctor McKay this is Caldwell have you isolated the location of the device?" the colonel said over the radio.

McKay gave an annoyed laugh to the air and the absurdity of the colonel's mental prowess.

"I have found out what happened to it yes, but I have not found where it is currently but there are two of the devices they work in pairs. But there are twelve of these stations over the planet each is linked to a single ZPM."

"Can you disconnect yours?"

"Yes but I do not want to do that yet, if I am right each bunker is built around a large underground water reservoir that is waiting for the terraforming to be completed before breaking the dam and filling this planets new oceans." Rodney stated "if I just pull the power the water will come crashing down and will trigger a mass overload in each bunker, the ZPM's are powering a shield device that is holding back the water."

"Then they must nearly be depleted after thousands of years."

"No, this planet also had high amounts of geothermic activity which the devices use, and that power is also siphoned into the shields so they will nearly all be full."

"So what do you propose?"

"Send down a team so I can show them what to do, and then once every station had somebody in place we pull them all at once" Rodney explained "I am also hoping that the Exogenesis devices will be in contact with one of the bunkers."

"Fine doctor, I will beam down a team." Caldwell confirmed.

Twenty four hours later every bunker had a team situated in the control room, the devices had been located deep within the planet crust and Rodney discovered that it utilised nanites to transform the planet from its base elements. Atlas and his team had already created the planets oceans which were sitting in the large mountains and had managed to create an atmosphere but it was toxic and contained the nanites that would have been needed to complete the process.

"I have found the devices colonel; I am sending you the coordinates now!" Rodney called over the radio and used the control panels to send the location to the ship.

"We have a lock" Caldwell confirmed "Beaming to portside F302 bay."

Rodney knew the colonel had been successful as alarms started to ring out across the bunker and the radio frequencies went haywire as all of the teams registered the same thing. An automated response to the devices lack transponder signal and the planet began the next stage of terraforming, the water shields began to power down and from the crust great swarms of nanites activated to transform the planet surface.

"Doctor McKay we are detecting that the planet surface has ruptured and large energy surges." Caldwell reported "What is happening."

"The removal of both devices has started the next steps of the process." Rodney stated, he then patched into all channels "All teams are to pull out the ZPM's now, and be prepared for beam out."

"Doctor it will take us time to get to everyone, we cannot lock on from orbit." Caldwell warned.

"We do not have a choice, the process will drain the power to transform the planet even as it kills us" Rodney shouted "Get moving!"

Rodney scrambled to the power interface room where the ZPM for his bunker sat and he powered it down and the light dimmed and the module rose out of its housing, when he returned to the room he watched as all of the systems powered down.

"Caldwell! Any time!" Rodney muttered looking at his watch and he was getting anxious, the floor began to shake with the geothermal disturbances and he was all too aware of the amount of water that threatened to crash down on him if the colonel did not hurry up.

Twenty minutes later Rodney was beamed to the bridge of the _Daedalus_ where he was able to get a view of the planet

"What is happening, how many people are left." He asked looking at the chaos that was unfolding of the window.

"Three left." Caldwell said "but we are straining the shields staying in this atmosphere."

"You cannot allow the shields to falter even for a moment" Rodney nearly shouted, fear rippling in his stomach, "this is not just irradiated sand surrounding us, they are nanites that will turn this planet into a green world, and they are capable of dismantling this ship and turning it into a forest if it wanted!"

"So what do you suggest?" Caldwell demanded "As it is we do not have the power to get to the three remaining teams."

"The ZPM's!" Rodney said clicking his fingers. "Do you still have the interface in the engine rooms?"

"They are fitted as standard on all Earth ships" Caldwell said, but Rodney didn't wait and he ran as fast as he could to the engine room where went about installing his ZPM to the ship, the ship accepted the additional power and immediately the additional power propelled the ship faster through the cloud and reinforced the shields.

They managed to beam the last three teams on board simultaneously just as the shields on the planet that held back the water failed and the bunkers were nearly flooded. The ship pulled out of the planet's atmosphere as fast as it could and they were safe.

**Four Days after the Mission on M912-PL7**

Sheppard had reported the mission back to the SGC on their weekly dial in, reporting that they had managed to locate twelve ZPM's that were still over half filled to capacity, as was the Exogenesis Device as it was a very advanced piece of technology that had been researched by the ASTD since SG1 had discovered an alien race converting a planet years previously.

The connection to the SGC had ended not one hour ago when the Gate began to dial and they received an IDC from Earth.

"Sheppard, the IOA is recalling you for a debriefing directly" Landry told him, "They also want you to bring all of the ZPM's you recovered and send the Daedalus back to Earth."

"This was faster than I thought it would be." John said smiling "I knew the IOA would want them, but unfortunately the Daedalus is needed here."

Landry smiled back he was only following orders, ones that he did not agree with. "Then in that case I must inform you that Mr Storm will be heading to Atlantis in the next few hours, and John I should warn you that they want you out of the command chair."

"Thanks for the warning," John told him and he cut the connection, he turned to Chuck, "Please have all council members meet in the meeting room in ten minutes."

"Sir, Teyla is off-world negotiating a trade agreement with the Visirini." Chuck said quickly "She is not due back for another four hours."

John frowned he had forgotten that he had sent her on that assignment, "Kennan?"

"He is with Torren" Chuck said.

"Then ask him to attend." John said "he is the co-leader of the Athosians."

"Colonel! We have detected a subspace emergency beacon!" Amelia announced looking at a screen, "It is one of our coded bursts given to our allies if they need to contact us without the gate."

John knew that, it was a method the Rodney and Zelenka had created for worlds undergoing a culling when the Wraith blocked the gate. The device broadcast a message into subspace which the sensors on Atlantis could pick up in the background noise, to anyone else it would be impossible to understand.

"Who is it?"

"The Elarians" she said "the planet with the buried city ship."

"Dial them up now." Sheppard ordered and they immediately began to dial but the gate would not lock, "The _Daedalus_?"

"It is three hours away sir." Chuck said "it is running supplies to Messaline, they would be able to pick up people from the closet system."

"Do it." John ordered, and he pressed his ear piece. "Larrin, Lorne my office, now."

"On my way sir." Lorne said

"Okay." Larrin responded.

John returned to his office and began to pick up a number of things, he had no intention of remaining on Atlantis whilst the Elarians were in trouble.

"What is it Sheppard I was about to have a quick dinner before our meeting." Larrin said taking her seat when she entered just before Lorne.

"That meeting is postponed. A planet which contains the remains of a City ship is in trouble." He said "I intend to give assistance, But I need both of you to remain here and make sure the city is safe."

"Safe from whom?" Lorne asked

"The IOA, they want our ship, ZPM's and the Terraforming device back on Earth, I refused and they are sending a IOA top brass over to speak to me, they are going to try to remove me from command." He said "But they cannot do that if I am not on the city, I am keyed into the city as commander, so you two will be in charge whilst I am gone."

"Your IOA do not like my people Sheppard, they will not let me be in charge of your people." Larrin pointed out "they want my people removed from the city and mainland."

"Yes but so long as this city is under my command that will not happen. Now I do not know exactly who will come through that gate, it should only be one IOA man, but if they send through military personnel, stun them all and place them in the brig."

"What of my people's ships?" Larrin asked "Do you want their assistance?"

"Yes I will, but send only four." He said thinking "They should arrive an hour after I get to the planet."

"I will send the orders" she said and left the office.

"Permission to talk freely sir?" Lorne asked awkwardly

"You know I welcome it." John consented.

"You are pissing off the IOA, you are asking for trouble." He said "Do you really think it is a good idea to leave?"

John chuckled "I need to do this, I am tired of being out of the action, I was not made to sit behind a desk, but I sure won't let the IOA take control of this city. Woolsey did the job well but they will never let him back in my chair, he is one of us now."

"Do you know anything about what is happening on the planet?" Lorne asked

"No, but is what makes me so excited." John replied truthfully and he left his office quickly leaving a shocked lieutenant behind him.

**Higher planes – Unnamed Galaxy – Distant Corner of Universe.**

The Ascended being walked down the corridors of the famous ship, it reminded him of his past, and the hope of his people never had his people journeyed to the ship but a surprise had come when humans had reached it. These humans were special; they were descendants of his people, a legacy in their own right claiming a legacy of the Altera.

It had been just over two years since the crew had entered stasis, and the ship was still travelling on its mission and he checked to make sure that they would reach the next galaxy, he worried for the crew and the ship, and they were in danger of being boarded, and the ship could not protect them whilst they were in stasis.

But he noticed that within the dialling computer a lockout code had been placed, and it prevented incoming wormholes, it seemed that the young human had managed to save them all with his plan to fix his stasis pod.

The being left the ship quietly, he did not want to get into trouble, he had watched over Destiny for millennia and he did not plan to stop now.

**Higher plane – Avalon Galaxy**

Within the great expanse of space which was devoid of life and planets, it was here that a battle was underway, a battle between two Ascended beings. They had been fighting for years and it was impossible for one to destroy the other without help and the Ancients would not help their sister in her battle with the Ascended Goa'uld.

Anubis had tricked Oma Desala into helping him ascend after he had been defeated and in retaliation the Ancients had only half descended him, she had been forced to watch her mistake cause havoc across the galaxy and kill hundreds in a war.

Inspired by the efforts of Doctor Daniel Jackson, Oma had finally confronted her mistake and hoped to find redemption in entering an eternal struggle, and the Ancients had allowed it as a further punishment for her interference with the lower planes.

Travelling through the plane as fast as they could were Janus and Elizabeth Weir who he had recently ascended and helped escape her replicator form, which was something of a miracle or scientific feat: a replicator was not capable of ascension as they were not truly living organisms but Elizabeth had been converted by nanites and still retained her, for lack of a better term, soul which had allowed Janus to help her ascend.

Janus had shown her how to help him and they dived into the struggle and the effect was near immediate.

Anubis realised he was outmatched and with three ascended all powerful beings against one he tried to flee but Oma gathered all of her strength fuelled by the additional power of Janus and Elizabeth was able not only stop him but rip him apart, and dispelled his energy with a great deal of pure power.

"You should not have done that Janus." Oma said reforming into a recognisable form.

"No, but I did." Janus said matter-of-factly "Your welcome, you have suffered enough."

"Thank you, but you with are at the mercy of the others now." She said sadly, and she turned to Elizabeth "I do not know you."

"I am Dr Elizabeth Weir, I am from Earth and formally in command of the city of Atlantis." She said with a friendly smile "I was also converted into an Asuran, but Janus rescued me."

"You are of Earth." Oma said surprised "Why I am not surprised one of your people are breaking our rules."

"Doctor Jackson is not alone in his thinking that the Ancients should not abscond their responsibilities" Elizabeth said "I myself have wanted to meet you for many years."

"He is a most unusual person, his compassion was his undoing but I cannot fault him for that" Oma said "It was he who pushed me to fight Anubis."

"He is a remarkable man" Elizabeth agreed, "Maybe in time he will return to the higher planes but somehow I do not think he will choose this path again."

"No, nor will our brethren let him if they had much choice" Janus said chuckling, "Come we have to move quickly, they cannot find us if we hurry."

They travelled to the distant supergate that was orbiting a black hole which connected to the Celestis galaxy and they charged into it.

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	14. Chapter 14

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Fourteen**

**Borealis**

**Pegasus Galaxy - Elaria**

John arrived on the planet through a cloaked jumper, as he passed through the puddle however it became clear who was laying siege to the world.

The Genii.

John was forced into evasive manoeuvres when the ground forces sent RPG's directly at the gate, guessing that something cloaked had come through. He patched into their radio frequencies and listened.

"Something just came through the gate." A voice said

"What was it?"

"We do not know, we didn't see anything but we heard it."

"Lanteans!" the second voice said in an amused tone "I had wondered if they would come."

"What shall we do?"

"Stay where you are, they are using an invisible flying ship, but they will be coming straight here." The amused voice said "We are ready for them."

John wondered how they had even found this planet but knew that was not important, if the Genii were able to interface their power sources into the Tower they may be able to detect the Jumper. He took a slow route to the location of the tower and when it was in sight the HUD activated and identified it.

_Borealis _

"Well at least that is better than calling it the tower" he said begrudgingly and then he actually looked at the location of the tower and what he saw shocked him.

Swarms of the Genii were pouring over a great excavation, they had revealed some of the outer sections of the city, they had created great mounds of earth on the outskirts and it was clear that they had been excavating the city for some time.

The parts of the city that he could see were damaged, none of the other structures stood over two stories, but the damage was not contained to the towers, there was damage to one of the piers.

He began to sweep past the city, using the life signs detector to try and pin point what had happened and where people were but it was impossible to tell who was who. Not learning anything he moved towards the villages and found the Genii stood guard over the villagers.

He wasn't going to learn much from his jumper so he set it down in an isolated location and activated a subspace beacon that would only be picked up by the Travellers or the Daedalus and he left the ship and set out on foot.

He made his way to the village where he had first met the Elarians and he managed to infiltrate it and he was forced to knockout two Genii.

"Lt. Colonel Sheppard?" said a voice ringing with shock.

John turned and trained his weapon on the voice and found it pointed at a battered and bruised Petra.

"Petra, what happened to you?" he asked lowering his weapon, she and her husband had taken in his team when he had been escorted to the tower. "What has happened here?"

"It has been over a year since they came, the Genii arrived offering us defence against the Wraith" Petra explained leading him into her home out of sight "They offered us trade and help, but we could not speak to them of trade without speaking to the other villagers, The Tower is where we discuss affairs that will impact our entire people so we took them there to wait for the other village representatives, and they became interested and asked to see more."

"I am sure they did." John said bitterly the Genii "I take it they soon decided that they were better off with your tower than you."

"Yes, they arrived in greater numbers and forced us to work in removing the tower from the ground." She explained "Lady Mara who watches over us was killed by the Genii leader, and all of our people were removed from the tower."

"Why do you look like you have been beaten?" he asked and he pulled out his first aid kit to help her.

"My husband Eldred and Baldric risked everything to get a message to Atlantis, Baldric lead my husband through the tunnels to the device you installed. They were caught but that was not before they activated the beacon. They are being held prisoner in the Tower, but to set an example to us they beat me."

"Who is leading this –"John began to say but the door crashed opened and five Genii soldiers barged in.

"Sheppard! Now this is a surprise!" said a voice that John recognised from the radio.

"And who are you?" he asked his gun still pointed at them but it was five against one and he knew he would be shot dead if he opened fire. They had covered the exits and they had him trapped.

"Captain Ganos, Come Sheppard we have been expecting the Lanteans for some time, but we never thought you would come through the gate." The captain said and his men approached John and disarmed him.

John didn't resist, he knew that his own people were on their way, he only needed to delay what was happening.

"You see we came across these people quite by chance and they carried and bartered a Lantean technology, imagine our surprise that they had an entire city here waiting for us." The Captain boasted, "The women who was the leader of these peasants said you would come and you did not disappoint, we have claimed the city and this planet for the Genii Nation!"

"Really? It looks to me that you have invaded a planet and wrecked an unsalvageable city." John pointed out and for his trouble he received a hard blow from his guard.

"Mock us as you wish, but we conquered this planet and the spoils belong to my people. We will rise to a race as great as the Ancestors!" The captain announced and he turned to Petra, "Take this woman to the village square and shoot her, she harboured an enemy of the Genii."

"No!" John exclaimed and he tried to get to her but his two guards held him whilst another hit him around the head knocking him out.

**Pegasus Galaxy - Elarian System - Traveller Ship Uonos - One Hour Later**

Above Elaria a rift opened in space and four large ships emerged.

On-board the lead vessel was Hessler, the captain and commander of the small fleet of ships that had previously been performing sweeps of outlining systems for Wraith installations.

"Anything on the sensors?" he asked looking at the planet out of the observation window.

"We have detected many life signs at a central location, and there we detect a large subterranean structure at the location. Sheppard's transmitter is also located in the structure."

"Colonel this is Hessler of the Generational ship Uonos please respond." He said broadcasting on the Lantean frequency but they didn't pick up anything, he tried another three times before he abandoned his attempted, and he had them scan for alternate radio frequencies and discovered the Genii's broadcasts and listened in for a while before communicating to his ships.

"I want all ships to descend to the planet surface, form a perimeter around the ruined city. The Genii do not have any weaponry that is powerful enough to threaten our ships with our shields activated, from our position we will push them back into the city. All ground forces are to ready for the assault in the next twenty minutes." He ordered and he turned to Major Samuels who had been assigned to his ship "Do you agree?"

"Your strategy is good, the _Daedalus_ is on route and they will be able to remove the Colonel using beaming technology." Samuels agreed "But I would urge caution, that is a sister ship of Atlantis, our intel says they do not have a working ZPM so cannot use its weapons but they might have other technology on that ship which we might not know about."

Hessler looked at the communications officer and said "Get a message to Atlantis tell them what is happening here, but also warn the Daedalus. Tell them that it is the Genii and that the Sheppard is possibly a prisoner."

**o-0-o**

As directed the four ships descended from orbit and entered the planet atmosphere, where they had landed around the crashed city with their shields raised. The Genii had never seen such ships and had run scared for a number of minutes but soon had been organised and they started to attack the ships.

As they had believed the Genii weapons were useless against the shield technology they had made good use of, the crew used their own ship weaponry to push the enemy forces back to allow the ground forces to gain a foothold. The Lanteans were being careful, the Elarians were peaceful and they didn't want any fatalities due to their actions so they worked on securing the outlining villages first and they tried to push the Genii back into the partially excavated city.

The _Daedalus_ had arrived when the last pocket of Genii resistance had retreated into one of the tunnels and they had been brought up to speed on the situation and Caldwell used a new piece of tech that had been installed on the ship to communicate directly to Sheppard.

John had been thrown into a cell by the Genii soldiers, but he had not been the only prisoner, Lady Mara was also there, as the Genii had faked her death so that they could use her ATA gene and have her people surrender.

They were talking about how the Elarians had made great use of the gate since the Lanteans had brought it down out of orbit when Caldwell shimmered into existence.

"Colonel" Caldwell said nodding in respect.

"What is the situation?" John asked "We have heard fighting and explosions."

"The four Generational ships and their forces have pushed all the Genii back to the city." Caldwell explained "But we do not have enough men to enter the city, especially with the amount of damage and sections that are not safe."

"My people should not be within the city, the Genii forced us to leave so that they could have free reign over the city. I believe I am on the one who has been allowed to remain." Mara said, "Can you not free us as you appeared without walking into this cell?"

"I am not actually here." Caldwell said quickly and to emphasise his point he waved his hand through the cell walls and the hologram broke. "What are you orders Colonel."

"Beam up all life signs to the Daedalus F302 bays; they can function as a temporary prison, have them emptied of everything but buckets and seats. The F302's can reside on the planet for now, but keep the hanger doors open, I think you can scare them a little, they have never seen space before." John ordered.

"That will take some time, and it might overload the system but I will have Novak get right on it." Caldwell said and his image faded out.

"What about me!" John shouted annoyed that he had been left in the cell and as if he had been heard a white light accompanied by the unmistakable sound of an Asgard transporter sounded leaving behind and smirking Ronon.

"Can I not leave you alone for five minutes?" he asked as he broke open the cell with his magnum.

"I was playing for time!" John said in his defence, "This is Mara, she is the leader of the people of this world."

"It is a pleasure to meet you; I have never seen a man who is so large." Mara said complimenting Ronon who only smirked and handed over a weapon and radio to John.

"Let's get you back to your people." John said and he led them out of the prison cell and down the corridor and they began to retake the city.

It had taken two days for all of the Genii to be rounded up from around the planet, some had fled into the surrounding area when the Lanteans had arrived and they had to be caught and beamed to the Daedalus.

Borealis had been thoroughly searched and looted by the Genii and it was clear to the Lanteans they were trying to copy and learn from the technology. The Genii were not cooperative within the make shift prison, even the sight of space had not settled them down as most believed it to be a TV screen or fabrication.

They had sent in teams to relieve them of weaponry and other technologies but a fight had broken out resulting in many injuries to both sides, Caldwell had the bays pumped full of a sleeping agent to knock them out so that his people could relieve them all of weapons.

The Elarians were thankful for the Lanteans but they had discovered just how dangerous it was for the Borealis to be on their planet and Lady Mara had asked that the Lanteans destroy it.

John had not wanted to agree and had asked for the opinions of the scientists and structural engineers on Atlantis for their views of the city and they had deemed that the city was salvageable and that if it could be unearthed and repaired to be made structurally viable they could transport it away.

When Borealis had been built by the Ancient Lanteans it has been a true sister to Atlantis, but it no longer resembled the legendary city and scans showed all but control tower was still intact, and the damage had been caused by a fight with the Wraith and its crash landing on the planet's surface. The damaged towers and other structures could not be repaired at all, it was the Lanteans plan to recycle the reclaimed materials for use in the repair of the city platform which incorporated the piers and engines that ran under them but the work ahead was extensive and some were dubious that they could manage it.

The first step for the Lanteans was to unearth the city ship entirely, something that had not happened since the ship crashed. Beaming technology on-board the _Daedalus_ was used after the Lantean technicians had created a program that would make the beams only sweep over the city and remove the soil and plant life and not any of the actual structure.

This took three days to accomplish as they had to be careful not to damage the city ship further but their patience was rewarded as eventually the city was uncovered for the first time in a millennia and it was both breath-taking and heart-breaking.

The ship has suffered such significant damage the Lanteans had wondered if the city was even worth saving, but they knew that building a city ship was beyond their current capabilities, so even having this shell of a city-ship was head start.

Elaria was beginning to build its first great city using techniques taught by the Lanteans, using brick and mortar, metals and other resources to build homes faster than they could previously, they only asked that the Lanteans help them build a lasting society, help defend them in times of need and medical supplies in exchange for the city.

The Genii forces were transferred to an unoccupied planet where the DHD was removed so they could not dial out. There was to be a tribunal with the coalition for the Genii's actions, Elaria was not in the coalition but going forward the Lanteans planned to have them within the safety of the treaties, but the Genii's actions were abhorrent and their race could not continue as they were.

A date had yet to be set, Landon had advised the coalition that he had not sanctioned the acquisition of Elaria and that the forces deployed there had been a rogue group, but it would be further looked into at the tribunal.

The Lanteans had arrived on Elaria in very large numbers and they worked through the wreckage of the city, the repairs began but they were slow. The Lanteans understanding of the technology was better than it had been two years previously as they had been studying the technology in great detail since they returned to Pegasus, but there was still a great deal more that they needed to learn.

They understood how the technology functioned, but it was the components that made up Ancient technology that they struggled with as they did not always have the full schematics of each part and sometimes they created a part that was functional but nowhere near as efficient as that which it was based on.

Rodney and Radek with the help of the Atlantis engineers had created a new manufacturing technology; it was a liquid composite material enriched with a small number of nanites that were able to order the material into a needed structure and once the process was complete they would become inert and become part of the material and it was impossible to reanimate them.

Using the new technology they were able to repair the platform of the city with relative ease, but it took a long time to program each batch of the composite as the nanites needed to form in a specific arrangement for their needs and they were mindful of how nanites could be used against them or even self-replicate so they had to be sure their programming was not wrong even slightly.

The technology was limited but it was useful, they used it to not only repair the platform of the city onto which the towers had been built, it was also used to make the remaining corridors and passages safe, the composite liquid was sprayed from a hose down the corridors, covering what remained of the walls, floors and ceilings and then the nanites got to work shaping the liquid into the very thing that they covered and fused themselves and the surface into a whole on a molecular level making it a seamless repair and unnoticeable.

The city became a very large shell of what it had once been; the platform had been made structurally secure and repaired in four weeks of solid work with teams working day and night covering the city was layer on layer of the composite liquid and they had managed to get it all done but the next step was to install the needed systems and repair the stardrive and power conduits throughout the city platform and control tower which was something that the composite material could not do at all.

When the Elarians had started to use Borealis as a royal residence they had removed all of the Lantean control terminals and any obvious technology from the control tower and most rooms, Rodney and Radek with their teams of technicians worked to reinstall them back into their rightful places which was hindered by the damage the Elarians had done when the ripped them out of rooms.

It took them some time but eventually that Control tower was almost entirely restored to its former condition and it was unlike the one they were familiar with on Atlantis. Borealis's tower did not have the gate in it and in its place was the control chair and all of the systems that were needed for its maintenance.

It do not bother Atlantis that the gate wasn't on the city as they would be able to change things when they had the city off the planet and in a safe location where they could begin to restore it entirely, Rodney had been furious when they eventually could access the Borealis database and found that it was corrupted due to the crash landing but he had forced two technicians to try and repair it.

**Pegasus Galaxy - Elaria - Two Weeks Later **

John stepped through the Stargate with Ronon and Larrin, even from the gate they could see the city and it was an impressive sight, especially as it had only been three months since they had been given the city, but with only one tower it was a shadow of its former glory.

"What do you plan to do with the city?" Larrin asked staring at it in the distance.

"I have no idea" John admitted, "but in its current state it is much good for anything."

"Will your Earth want the City?" she asked frowning, she still did not like IOA forcing him to do things that she felt hindered their fight against the Wraith.

"Yes, and I think that will be a good thing." John said "With it they can do some good back home, we do not need two cities we can barely staff just the one and I will not give the city to anyone in this galaxy before you ask me for your people."

John could feel her looking at him but ignored her, he was tired, tired of Atlantis, tired of being the leader of the expedition and especially tired of dealing with the IOA. The Travellers were causing his a small amount of grief as the three ships that had left Atlantis permanently had run into some trouble and had the audacity to demand that they help them get the ship repaired.

He knew Larrin was getting the receiving end of his frayed temper but he didn't actually blame her, she had put her entire support into Atlantis. The IOA had seized the opportunity to have a working City-Ship for themselves back on Earth and they demanded that they ready the ship for a journey to Earth.

John had refused originally on principle but the IOA had thrown a considerable amount of money into the Expeditions budget to speed the process of its repair and he eventually had to agree to it, although he hadn't told them that the money was not needed as liquid composite construction technology had cut down the costs almost entirely and had already repaired the city, he happily took the influx of cash and had it diverted to develop other technology for manufacturing needs.

He had been avoiding the IOA for the last two weeks with excuses of off world inspection of assets or a trade agreement that needed his attention, he even spent three days on the drilling platform working with the crews just to avoid them.

"I did not consider it" she eventually said to him after a tense silence. "My people do not require a city and it only has one tower anyway. What is wrong Sheppard?"

"Nothing" John said waving off her concern, they were not a couple and he would not unload his concerns on her.

"Is the plan to carry out all repairs here or to transport it to Lantea?" she asked him "It would be easier back on Lantea."

"According to Zelenka in three months it might be capable of interstellar flight, but I think they have concerns which is why they called us here" John said "I am hoping it will be capable a lot sooner."

"We better hope the Wraith do not find out about the city, or they will come." Ronon grunted, "These people are not capable of surviving without assistance."

John agreed, they had kept the fleet in the system but they were trying to prevent the Wraith from detecting them in the proximity so they would not investigate why ships were in this quadrant of space, he hoped they would not be forced to defend the city as it was not viable as once it was discovered they currently wouldn't be able to defend it from constant attack.

They walked to the city where they entered the city using a door in one of the piers and had to walk up to the tower as they had not been able to get the transport booths operational, the walk took just over an hour which made John wish that they had taken a Jumper.

"Sheppard!" Rodney exclaimed "You took your time!"

"Sorry Rodney but since you have failed in getting the transport booths operational we had to walk the entire way" John snapped harshly "Now why have you asked for us to come?"

"The piers and platform are structurally sound and we have now begun to install power conduits from the central tower to the piers and star drive. We have been able to reuse some of the conduits that were undamaged and they have shown us how they were constructed, but we are going to need additional resources to get that all done, it's a city and there is a lot of conduits and other systems that needs to be repaired." Rodney reported "No our problem lies with the City-ship shield Emitters"

"What about them?" Ronon asked sounding bored already.

"Well a City-Ship needs ten emitters to generate the City shield as you know they are the most powerful shields in the known universe. The City will not travel in hyperspace without a shield and it will need a city shield to protect it."

"Rodney what is the problem" John asked impatiently think this was a waste of time that could have been avoided with a memo or report.

"The Borealis only has eight of the emitters, two of them had been entirely destroyed when it crashed or during the battle that made it crash. Three of those eight remaining emitters are damaged and will require major repairs, and we are going to have to build two from scratch."

"We are not even sure that we are able to build the emitter." Zelenka said pushing his glasses up his nose frowning with worry.

"What do you need?" John asked, "On Atlantis you have ten working ones you can study and four here on Borealis, What do you need to get the job done?"

Rodney looked at him again and opened his mouth to say something by Radek beat him to the punch.

"We will need access to the Atlantis Database, and possibly the schematics to the shield emitters for Destiny." He said quickly "Resources and materials will still need to be sent but we are going to need more teams to construct the necessary components for the emitters, some of them we do not have the facilities to make.

"Doctors you have been using the nanite construction techniques you created" Larrin said "Surely this is speeding up the construction and repair time?"

"Yes but we will need greater quantities of Neutronium for it to work." Rodney explained glaring at Zelenka for interrupting him "The liquid material is composed of basic raw materials which the nanites order and form into a new material. It is not a simple process for us to even begin creating the liquid materials used and it takes days to create even a small quantity, we need to refine the process of creating it."

John nodded, it was always the same thing, they needed more time to develop technology, but the Expedition needed breathing room to be able to truly develop technology and to get the city operational, but the threat of the Wraith and the IOA it was a second priority. "I will see if I can get the schematics for the matter streaming technology Area 51 has developed, that should help with construction."

"That technology is not currently viable" Rodney stated "Sam was testing it before she went missing."

"Yes, but I think your team could make it work for our needs." John told him bluntly "Your job is to get this city ready to fly. Meaning the Stardrive, inertia dampeners, chair and shields so we can get it to Earth for full construction to begin."

"Sheppard –"Rodney began to exclaim

"No, get it done so that we can get some breathing room from Earth." John told him, "The IOA is basically paying for this ship and if we do not deliver I am worried about what they will do"

John turned around and stormed out of the office to return back to Atlantis, he wished that Elizabeth was still alive she was a better leader than he was, and he was regretting returning to Pegasus.

As he walked he noticed that the city was dead, it was so unlike Atlantis, when he walked the corridors he could feel a sense of life and activity as if the city was connected to him through his genes. But on Borealis there was no feeling; it felt like a ton of metal with no personality or feeling.

He was aware that other ATA carriers felt the city is a similar manner but no one seemed to have noticed the lack response on this city. He wondered who had been the city's leader and what they would think if they saw their city now.

He shook his head, knowing the Ancients they wouldn't care, they would merely repair and move on like they had done so many times or just fled and never looked back, he walked passed a reflective surface and did a double take, he thought he saw someone behind him but when he turned nobody was there.

"Maybe this city is alive" he said to himself and then he turned and continued on "Or maybe I have gone mad."

He continued down the corridor and entered a stairwell which would lead him to the exit.

What he would have seen if he turned around was a man with whom he had much in common, a man who had once called this city his own and to its people their leader.

"Borealis was a beacon of hope once, now she is a shell of her former beauty." The man said sadly "Repair her and she will be a like a sun and help guide you towards peace and diplomacy, but perhaps you like myself were not the right man for command."

The man shook his head, and straightened his clothes, they were heavy on him but he did not mind the military uniform was a reminder of the path he took, one that cost the Ancients greatly.

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	15. Chapter 15

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Fifteen**

**Cat and Mouse**

**Distant Galaxy – USS George Hammond **

It had been three months since Samantha Carter and Cameron Mitchell on board their ships the _Odyssey _and _George Hammond_, had been thrown off course during a hyperspace jump, and they were still stuck in a system that they did not recognise.

The crews of both ships had not been idle whilst they had been stranded, the damaged sub light engines on the _Odyssey_ had been repaired using spare materials on the ships and the matter creation technology given to them by the Asgard, they supplemented the technology using the mining system which the _Hammond _had been testing to extract the needed resources.

It had taken two months to get both ships back in fully working order and both commanders had spent the last two weeks trying to discern their location in the universe and so far they had been unable to pinpoint their location so they were travelling in hyperspace looking for a system that would show them the way home.

Sam had her ship drop out of hyperspace into a system that the long range sensors had detected, and as she observed the system she probed it with the sensors and they detected structures on one of the planets below.

"General, the scan of the planet is complete, there are no humanoid life signs, but scans detect that the planet once sustained life. Sensors are also detecting a satellite in orbit of the planet." Major Marks reported, "The computer is running a program to identify possible origins."

"Get us closer." She ordered "It will allow the computer to run a diagnostic easier."

The ship changed its course and travelled at sub light speed to the other side of the planet, the ships sensors analysed the satellite from the data they were receiving.

"General? The computers analysis is complete." Marks said sounding surprised, "if the computer is correct, that satellite was built by the Asgard."

"The Asgard?" Sam questioned and she left her chair to look at the wall screen looking at the readings from the sensors and she could see that the design was most defiantly Asgard, but if she was correct it was old technology and the device was giving off no power readings which she assumed was because it was dead.

She hurried over to a terminal and brought up a star map that was programmed into all Earth Vessels and she had the computer try to plot their location using the stars but the results brought back nothing.

"Odd, our navigation computer had no knowledge of these stars, if the Asgard has a presence here they should be in the charts they gave us." She mused out loud; she turned to Marks, "Can you contact the _Odyssey_?"

Marks was quiet for a moment as he tried to reach the ship through the subspace.

"_Hammond_ this is _Odyssey_ what have you found?" Cameron questioned.

"Cam we are sending you co-ordinates of a planet where we have found what looks to be a very old piece of Asgard technology" she told him, "It might be possible to use the _Odysseys_ Asgard Core to pinpoint our location."

Cam frowned at the news and turned towards his our navigator and they had a conversation that the broadcast didn't pick up before he turned back to her "Sure, we can be there within twenty minutes."

Sam nodded and they ended the transmission and waited for Cam to arrive. They had the satellite beamed into the F302 bay to have it investigated by technicians to find out if it contained anything of interest.

They were unable to discern what the satellite had been placed for, it obviously monitored the planet but they did not know why since the planet held no life other than creatures and plants.

When the _Odyssey_ arrived they scanned the system and their navigation computer also yielded no results, so Daniel initialised the Asgard Core and used it to run a search for the system and it took him an hour to find anything.

He arrived to a briefing room on the _Odyssey_ were the former members of SG:1 sat waiting.

"Well I know where we are." He said but they all noticed his disappointed tone.

"Where are we Jackson?" Cam asked

"The reason we did not have any luck finding these stars on any of our charts was because the Asgard never ventured here." He said "This system is located outside their exploration of the known universe, we are on the very outer rim of the Black Eye Galaxy."

"Black Eye Galaxy?" Vala asked "I have never heard of it."

"It is really of the beaten path, I do not think the Ancients even ventured here" Daniel said "According to the Asgard Core the Asgard sent out a number of unmanned vessels that were to explore this region of space as a possible place to relocate to when the replicators attacked by as their war grew in intensity and they began to lose they abandoned this exploration."

"That satellite is used as an observation platform to watch the planet below and detect any life forms and their technological abilities." He explained "But that is not what concerns me, this Galaxy is further away than we have ever been before, this Galaxy is four Galaxies away from the Milky way."

"Did you say four Galaxies away?" Cameron asked.

"Yeah, and if I am right it will take us months to get back to Earth" Daniel reported "But that is only possible for the _Odyssey_ and its ZPM, it will take the _Hammond_ seven months."

"Are there any gates out here?" Sam asked "the Seed ships and Destiny was sent out and they planted the first generation gates, did they come this way."

"I don't know" Daniel said looking at the information he had printed "according to the core there are no gates, but the Asgard did not explore this galaxy in full. The seed ships might have come here but I have only found a vague reference to those ships in the core. And those references are from when the Asgard was a young race."

Sam thought about how they could contact Earth and wondered if they could still use the gate network, the Andromeda, Ida and even the Othala Galaxy had a gate network, they were not as populated with gates as Pegasus or the Milky Way but there was a small network they could tap into.

"All we need to do then is get to Andromeda, Ida or Othala and we can dial in from a gate and contact Earth." Sam said "with the ZPM we can make the connection."

"Indeed" Teal'c said.

"What about our guest?" Mitchel asked.

"The fact that a member of the IOA was meeting with the Lucian Alliance is cause for concern." Teal'c said "Is it not better if we use the time to find out what the IOA is doing?"

"He has not talked in two months, do you think he will start now?" Daniel said.

"Well we have months to interrogate him" Vala said candidly "You should look in that core for a mind probe and rip it from his mind. There is only one reason those IOA people would be with the Alliance."

"You believe them to be conspiring?" Sam asked "They surely wouldn't, even the NID didn't do that."

"Well he wasn't there buying groceries." Cam muttered "I think we should journey of Earth without contacting them, if the IOA are involved it might help us to put them on the back step."

"You might be right." Sam admitted sadly "The IOA may have betrayed our home, and they will be held accountable for it if we can prove it."

**Higher planes – Celestis Galaxy **

Three ascended beings were travelling at incredible speeds across the universe, they had used the Supergate to access the Celestis Galaxy, the true birthplace of the human race.

No longer was this the home to the Ori after they had been defeated by the people of Terra, there was only a remnant of them left, a single ascended being that lingered on, the last of the Ori.

Adria.

She was now locked in an eternal battle with an Ancient ascended being, Morgan Le Fay or as she had been known on Atlantis, Ganos Lal. Morgan had broken free of the punishment she had been given by the Others and taken matters into her own hands and had attacked her.

As with Anubis and Oma neither could overcome the other as Ascended beings were of equal power so neither could eliminate the other, and that was how the three Ascended beings found them, deep in space away from any planet was a fiery energy wave being held in check and contained by a white energy.

Janus, Oma boosted their own power from Elizabeth who was not able to use her abilities to their full potential and they dove into the eternal fight and merged their power with Morgan.

"This is not possible, Ancients do not interfere!" Adria exclaimed as she felt the three ascended being join the battle "You should not be here"

"I am not the only one of my brothers and sisters who believed the Ori to be a threat." Morgan said calmly as her power was increased "You and your kind plagued this galaxy and have been sapping strength from its people for too long. The Ori are no more."

"You cannot defeat me, I am the last of the Ori and I am the ORICI!" Adria shrieked and she poured a fiery projectile of pure energy directly at Morgan.

Morgan smiled serenely "I can with the help of my brethren, I do not need to be worshiped to overcome you."

She raised her own incorporeal hands and from them poured pure white energy that pushed back Adria's own attack and continued on to Adria who tried desperately to flee or fight back but the strength of four beings was too much for her and the energy hit her and she was overcome before being ripped apart and her energy cancelled out.

Morgan lowered her arms and looked sadly at the space where Adria had been previously, she glowed briefly as the three other beings left her and they materialised into energy beings.

Morgan saw Elizabeth first and smiled

"Hello Doctor Weir it is good to see you again." She said and turned to her to fellow Ancients, "You know that the Others will not stand for this"

"Yes but I do not care" Janus told her "for too long have we walked the line they created."

"Janus" Morgan nodded "I am not surprised."

"Neither was I when he saved me" Oma said "We do not have long, the Others will know what we have done."

"I do not agree with what you have done Janus, but I thank you." Morgan said "what is your plan?"

Janus smiled and shook his head "Now there is another group of people who need our help, and then I plan on helping the people of Earth."

The four Ascended beings suddenly shiver as they felt a power on their plane of existence at the very edge of the Galaxy.

"The Others are coming." Oma said "They know what we have done."

"They will have monitored the situation here closely." Morgan replied looking into the distance. "We must move quickly."

"I will leave you here." Oma told them, "There is something that I must do."

She transformed into a glowing white energy and left them for the Supergate.

"Ganos you studied genetics whilst you were on Atlantis did you not?" Janus asked

"I did"

"Then please will you accompany us?" He asked.

"I shall." She said looking at him in wonder "Why do you need my expertise?"

"Oh, you will see." Janus said hastily and he transformed into energy and with his companions they raced after Oma, they needed to avoid the oncoming Ascended beings and it would take them time to get back out of the Celestis Galaxy but Janus knew that it didn't matter, where they were going, patience was abundant and they did not have to hurry.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

John sat looking over the information that he had been sent by the off world teams, allies and ship captains, and it was painting a bad picture. The Trinity Queens have begun a new campaign and they had a sizeable armada, an armada that Atlantis currently didn't have the means of defeating.

He needed ships, even with the power of the ZPM's at his disposal they would not be able to take on their forces, it was obvious that the Queens had a new ship growing facility which remained secret, even Todd had been unable to locate it.

Todd was still living in the outer rim of the Pegasus Galaxy, he and his small group of followers were keeping out of the way of the Queens and John was not certain but he believed that Todd was up to something and was biding his time.

Atlantis was nearly self-sustaining, the Lanteans had worked the land and had a plentiful harvest, but they were not merely using traditional farming techniques, they had begun to build Hydroponic labs to grow further produce but it was slow. The settlement had grown a great deal, it was powered by a bunker under the settlement that held a prototype power relay system that Area 51 had created as a possible method of energy production on Earth if the Gate program was revealed, the Lanteans had taken the design and enhanced it so that it could even power the shield that covered the settlement without the need for ships supplying the power.

Water filtration was now also carried out on the mainland without the need to transport it from Atlantis, the water was drawn from the ocean, cleaned, processed and pumped into the houses and structures, the Sewer systems were also built to filter all waste and clean it before recycling it for future use or returning it to the ocean.

The underwater drilling platform had been fully repaired and it operated with a minimal crew, the platform still drilled into the ocean floor to draw in the thermal energy but it now mined the ocean floor for resources whilst it drilled, and new processing plants had been built in the platform to refine them, it used the thermal energy to power the refinery and it was collected routinely by Jumpers.

But today was not a day for bad news, today was the first day when the Athosians Free Market opened on Athos, in the years since they had returned to Pegasus Teyla had made agreements with many planets that they visited, she notified them of the Market and the address.

She had even petitioned the Coalition of Planets to support the venture, and they had agreed and they were spreading the word of the market for them, and the Lanteans had built the structure for the Planet and today everything was finished and ready for the traders.

The Lanteans were throwing their full support to the Market, and they were planning on showing their full support by trading on the planet themselves, and John wanted to see the operation himself so he dressed in the white clothing of the Ancient Lanteans, it would make them stand out and the Market only had two rules.

One: No Weapons were allowed on the planet during an open Market, any race found violating the rule would be banned from future Market Days.

Two: In payment for the use of the Open Market the Athosians would receive one percent of the goods that a merchant wishes to trade.

"Sheppard!" Rodney called as John began to descend the operations stairs.

"What is it Rodney?" John said and he saw that he too was wearing the same formal dress of the Lanteans but it did not suit him at all, "Your coming?"

"Of course, Jenifer is too, but she is bringing a number of her team to set up a clinic and will be trading medical supplies for off world medicines to test them for our own uses." Rodney answered with a wave of his hand, "But I wanted to give you these."

In his hand was a box which he opened to show two wrist cuffs.

"These were found in a storeroom, they were part of the Ancient Lantean uniform." Rodney said, and he pulled them out and placed them onto John's arms. "According to the database these were given to distinguished members of the Ancient Lantean society, I tried to scan them to find out what they could do but my instruments didn't detect anything."

"Why are you giving these to me?" John asked as he touched the cuffs and his gene activated the technology and within the cuff, which was made of a dark cream material, a touchscreen display appeared within the material but Rodney seemingly didn't see it.

"I suppose these could be helpful." John admitted.

"I think they have a number of uses, but my gene isn't strong enough to activate the damn thing and believe me I have tried." Rodney finished with a deadly glare at the devices "We found these when we first arrived in the city but it was only when we were finding these old uniforms that one of my team realised these were part of the uniform and pulled them out of storage."

John raised an eyebrow at his friend, and concealed a smirk, he knew how much Rodney hated to think himself for whatever reason inferior to anyone.

"So you tried to use them then?" John asked.

"Well of course, but they didn't work." He said testily.

John didn't reply as the remainder of the Lanteans who would visit Athos joined them all dressed the white uniform of Atlantis and he smiled, he saw Athosians, Travellers and people of Earth unified with a uniform and he was able to smile proud of their achievement which was rare these days, but his smile faltered when he saw Carl Strom walking down into the corridor.

Strom had arrived a week ago to perform a debrief of Woolsey but John knew he was up to something else he just hadn't figured out what yet. John wondered if he was being paranoid but Strom had been trying to access portions of the Atlantis database and John had taken great pleasure in restricting his access and blocking his searches.

Whilst all of the Lanteans were dressed as one society, Strom stuck out like a wolf amongst sheep, he was dressed not in the standard Atlantis uniforms or the traditional Lantean garb but in an Earth made suit. John couldn't help but feel that it was a statement in itself wearing it as it made him stick out and his was such an arrogant man he probably did it on purpose.

"Let's go, Teyla is expecting us." John called loudly "Control, dial the gate"

The gate lit up as it began to dial as the wormhole settled into a stable event horizon, John led his people through the gate to a planet where their entire Expedition had begun, with the first world they visited.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Athos **

As John stepped through the gate he saw the changes that Athos had undergone since Teyla had proposed her idea.

The Gate itself had been placed within a smooth tarmac floor, and the gate was covered by a large structure with a glass roof, within the structure were Lantean Security officers dressed in their body armour. They would inspect all travellers merchandise for contraband before allowing them to pass.

As Lanteans they were exempt from these checks and they bypassed the security checkpoint and passed out onto the lush outdoors.

The Planet had been nearly barren of life after the bombardment the Wraith had given the planet but the ongoing perseverance of the Athosians and with the help of the Daedalus they had been able to get the surrounding area restored. There was a flat wide road that led towards the site of the market, and it could be seen gleaming in the distance, it was built not unlike the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and glass domes glistened at them.

Surrounding the Bazaar were many prebuilt stalls in case of large groups needing to sell wares if they couldn't find room inside. Other facilities had also been built for visitors to see to personal needs but they had also built other structures used for cooking and serving as restaurants and café's but there was also a large tavern in which John knew Kannan was serving Athosian beers and mead.

"Welcome people of Atlantis to the Athos Free Market" said a familiar happy voice.

John turned to see Teyla standing there wearing her best Athosian style clothing.

"Teyla, I have to say this is very impressive." John said greeting her in the standard Athosian manner, "I had not realised that it had come so far."

"You have been busy John, but my people welcome you to our Market." She said and turned gesturing to the Bazaar "Please go inside and see what is on offer, but I hope you have brought things to trade."

"Teyla have you got anywhere that we can set up shop" Jenifer asked gesturing to her cases that were full of medical equipment.

"Of course." Teyla said and she summoned Jinto over, "Jinto will show you a free building for your clinic."

"Thank you" Jenifer said and she allowed Jinto to take one of her cases as he did not take no for an answer "How would you like to help me today?"

"I would be glad to Dr Keller." Jinto said happily.

"Teyla have the Coalition of Planet representatives arrived yet?" John asked.

"No, but they should be arriving shortly." She told him and she was distracted by a radio broadcast from the security station.

The security station was actually a large tower built at the edge of the Market, it was a secure facility manned by not the Lantean security forces but the Athosians and was equipped with long range sensors and communication equipment.

"Teyla, we are detecting two ships entering the Athos System." Someone said over the radio, "They do not appear to be Wraith."

"Is it Colonel Caldwell?" Teyla asked looking at John for confirmation who shook his head at her.

"Caldwell should be here in an hour." John told her,

"Teyla they getting closer to the planet," Said the security officer.

"Athos Free Market this is Grinva of the Travellers" said a female voice

"And this is Maric also of the Travellers," said a male voice on the same frequency.

"We seek to enter your atmosphere to trade." The Grinva added, "We mean no harm."

John rolled his eyes at those two captains they had been two of the most difficult travellers to negotiate with and he was not surprised that they had come, Larrin had told him that it was possible they would arrive.

"Traveller ships you are cleared to enter Athos" Teyla responded after being patched through to the ships via the security tower "Please land to the south of the market in the large fields, your ships can dock safely. You will need to transport your wares to the market on foot. Please respect the rules that no weapons are allowed in the Market and the payment for use of the Market."

"We have been made aware of the conditions and we will follow them." Maric replied "Would you happen to know if Councillor Larrin of Atlantis is here."

"Yes, Larrin is currently in the Market, she will be pleased to see you." Teyla responded and they cut the radio, "I should get going, but try to enjoy yourself John, you made all of this possible."

John tried to do as she asked and he walked through the Bazaar and saw that there was in deed merchants and traders from all over the Pegasus Galaxy, some of the people he even recognised from his off world travels.

He saw that the wares that were being sold and traded differed greatly, most traded vegetables, some medicines and produce, some of the more advanced societies offered simple technologies, the Travellers were doing just that in exchange for produce to feed their ships but also medical supplies.

It was quite a shock when the Genii set foot on the planet to try to trade but they did not stay long as they had arrived armed and had been sent back through the gate, they had been very angry when they realised just who it was who controlled the Market and when they saw the Lantean security forces it had nearly become a fight but the security teams had managed to handle it.

An hour later Landon had arrived to discuss what had happened but John had told him to meet them in a week at the coalition and it would be discussed then, today was not the day for such meetings, and he had agreed. He had asked about a missing contingent of his military but John had pretended he knew nothing about it.

The Coalition representatives had arrived as promised and what they saw pleased them greatly, and they requested a pavilion for themselves so that they could discuss with merchants and visitors about possibly joining the coalition and they met with many people.

John decided that he had seen enough and soon left the Market, when he arrived in the security centre he saw that the security teams were busy handing out what looked like metal tags but he knew they were actually a form of passport to be used by travellers to the Market, it would list the name of the trader or visitor with an image taken by the security camera, their home planet details, What gates dialled in to get them to the planet and where they gate to when they leave.

Not that the merchants knew that was what the tags contained, they merely scanned them on the large podium when they entered and left the planet, the traders were also asked to register what they brought to the planet and what they left with to make sure that all products could be traced just in case anything was wrong in case of contagions and viruses.

John was about to ask one of the security officers who had the DHD in a protected booth to prevent unauthorised use to dial Atlantis but he was busy programing a Passport tag, when he remembered the Lantean wrist cuffs.

He touched his fingers to the right cuff and within the material a visual interface appeared, he pressed the button for the dialling interface and then the left cuff lit up and projected a holographic display of gate symbols and he dialled Atlantis.

The gate immediately lit up but as the device communicated with the gate interface it sent the address and created the wormhole without the unstable vortex exploding out of the gate and it just raised itself calmly waiting for him to step through.

"Neat." He muttered he stepped through the gate to Atlantis.

As he stepped through gate he exited into the gate room where he was confronted by the security forces on full alert.

"Colonel! We didn't realise it was you" lieutenant colonel Lorne admitted putting his P90 down, "The shield wouldn't activate, anything to do with you?"

"Yeah it was me, sorry about that." He said as the security forces stood down "I used a special code as I forgot my IDC" he lied, and he left for his quarters to get changed out of the formal clothes, but turned to the Colonel, "Keep an eye on Strom, he is up to something."

"Yes Sir."

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth - Stargate Command**

"Sir" said a voice from the door to the Generals Office.

"Yes Chief?" Landry asked looking up from his desk expectantly

"We have just received a communication for Area 51, the International Space Station has detected an energy spike as its sensors swept the planet looking for Naquadah or Naquadria. The Station has detected what is believed to be Naquadah power generation." Walter said hesitantly "It is possible that we have found an Alliance strong hold here on Earth."

Landry took the offered report and saw where it was and frowned, it was unlike the Lucian Alliance to be so obvious and they had not detected any such signatures before especially as they believed the Alliance was using their own technology for their own ends.

"They are certain?" he asked not wanting to cause an international incident.

"We believe so. The energy signature was detected for just under thirty minutes and then dissipated entirely," Walter confirmed "The only people who are aware this at the moment are us and our scientist on the station."

"I understand Chief, tell Area 51 took keep monitoring." Landry asked and he dismissed him and sighed, today was going to be a day he would regret, he picked up the phone and used speed dial and called the second number in the directory.

"Hank?" was the answer.

"Jack, we have a problem." Landry said dully.

"When don't we?" Jack said sarcastically "Well out with it, I'm already missing the Simpsons."

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth - Home World Command **

Jack signed as he put down the phone after receiving the report from Landry and he knew that this Intel and what he would need to do would cause political fallout and a major headache for him. The information had seemed a little off to him, it was sloppy of the Alliance to leave such a trace of power generation but he supposed it was about time they caught a break with the Alliance operatives on Earth.

It was going to be a day of jumping through hoops and politics, it was for this reason he hated having the desk job, he still envied the SG teams who were out exploring the Galaxy, a job he had done for years and missed terribly.

He felt alone on Earth these days, Sam, Daniel, Teal'c and Mitchell were MIA and he missed their company, he did not believe that they were dead. He had to believe they weren't dead, he had lost too many people over the years. It was Daniel at that very moment he really wanted here on Earth to help him, as he was often the most help during diplomatic talks and was well respected by most governments.

Not that Jack didn't have his own goodwill, he was commander of Homeworld Command an Allied Command of all of Earths defences on Galactic affairs, and he had saved Earth a number of times which he did occasionally have to drop into conversation, but he knew that most didn't trust him because he was an American Air Force General.

He picked up the phone and dialled a number which he had been dialling a lot recently, most of which had mostly been met with stone walls, secretaries or being passed round the houses until he gave up.

It seemed that luck was on his side today as the phone actually connected to the office that he wanted.

"Elliot Cavendish's office" the secretary answered.

"This is General Jack O'Neill of Homeworld Command for the Prime Minister." He said, and he rolled his eyes when his call was placed on hold and then answered by another paper pusher.

"Unfortunately General, the Prime Minister is in the middle of an important meeting of state, I can take a message and make sure he gets it." The PA said in a bored tone.

"Tell your employer that we have a lead on Alliance forces in his back yard, and I am sure he will take my call." Jack told her annoyed with the British Establishment ignoring him since the destruction of their ship.

"Please hold General."

"I thought so." Jack said triumphantly as his call was put through a moment later.

"What has the Alliance got to do with the UK?" the Prime Minister said gruffly with no greeting at all.

"We have detected their technology on the outskirts of London." Jack said "I am ready to deploy a team of Area 51 energy specialists as well a tactical team to search the area immediately, and I would be grateful if the British Government cooperated with me in this matter."

The line was silent for some time.

"Your people will be met at a location of our –"

"When I said immediately, I meant it." Jack said his patience being tested, "I will have them beamed directly to the site."

"You do not have the authority to use beaming technology over the sovereign territory of the United Kingdom." The Prime minister said angrily "Your people are to be transported to a secure location at Thames House; from there they will be escorted to the location of the energy spike, your tactical team will not be needed as we will provided the needed forces."

Jack grimaced, the British were becoming a true thorn in his side, or more like an annoyance as they did not seem as friendly as they once were, and the special relationship between America and Britain had nearly all but dissipated.

"I can consent to that." Jack agreed begrudgingly

"Where is this technology you have detected?" The Prime Minister asked.

"Wandsworth, South West London." Jack told him looking down at the repot on his tablet "My team is ready."

"Very well" the Prime minister said and he ended the call.

"I thought the British were supposed to be polite." Jack said to himself shaking his head.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – London **

Dr Bill Lee was for the second time in two years part of the team sent by General O'Neill to the UK, and this was not unlike the investigation in Scotland, and it was obvious that the British Government was highly suspicious of them and their motives.

They had beamed directly down into a private room in Thames House where they were met by private military personnel officers who ushered them into large black Range Rovers and sped out of London with blue lights flashing down the side of the cars front and rear windows.

Their drivers and escorts were dressed in a grey uniform with grey berets and unlike most British police or security they were carrying a weapon, they sat silent and were watching the scientists carefully whilst in transit which made them nervous.

"This is Grey Wolf-One, we are on route, have all roads cleared we are going to be breaking the speed limits." The driver warned the operator.

"Greywolf-One, we receive you and have you on our tracking system, all roads are being cleared and you are given priority. Traffic lights will be in the green on your approach."

They drive did not take them long, as the control man had said the roads had been cleared and they all lights were green on their approach allowing them to speed through London at speeds Bill thought was impossible in the city but soon in the distance he saw an iconic building that was tall and old.

When they arrived the cars skidded to a halt and their escorts jumped out with their guns raised to secure the perimeter

"This building is supposed to be derelict and abandoned." Dr Eccles said "This is the album cover to one of my favourite Pink Floyd albums."

"Battersea Power Station." Lee said looking at it in wonder "I am surprised that it is still standing, it's old and had been unused for so long, but the development always ends up failing."

"The perimeter is secure Dr's, are you detecting anything?" Grey Wolf five asked.

"No, we are detecting no residual power readings at all, it's like they were never here." Jones responded.

"Well we will need to check inside, these old bricks are not allowing my sensor readings to penetrating further." Lee said looking at the hand held device "Can we get inside? It's possible that there is shielding or cloaking technology."

"Excuse me!" said a loud voice and a man wearing a security uniform walked towards them "This is private property!"

"Stop right there" said one of the soldiers pointing his gun at the man. "State your name and intent!"

"Killian Myles, I am the security guard for this site." He said "it's an easy job nothing ever happens here."

"How did you know we were here?" the soldier asked still not lowering his gun.

"I saw you on the security cameras, thought you were a bunch of kids with paint ball guns, didn't see the cars." Myles said "Can I help you gents?"

"Can you open the Station?" Grey Wolf Five asked pointing the large metal doors. "We need to get inside."

"Sure, you should know that the Trident Group has not done much to the old place and do not care for investors or developers." Myles said pulling out a set of keys on a chain and undoing two padlocks that kept the door locked and put a passcode into the keypad next to it."

As the door opened they got a look at the run down station showcasing different ages of Earth technology and it was clear that the place was nearly derelict and the roof was leaking in places but it looked like someone had begun to remove some of the old station machinery but a lot of it remained.

"Mr Myles has anyone been here today?" Lee asked as the scans brought back only scant readings of naquadah energy.

"Men from the Governments Department of Energy and Climate Change were here. This Station is still connected to the National Grid thirty years after the Station stopped producing electricity. They were here running tests, they often use the Station for its access point and the corporation allows it."

Lee raised his eyebrows surprised, after another hour of looking the found nothing and they made a call to Jack back in Washington who made his own enquiries with the British Government about one of their departments testing some technology from the Stargate program.

It had taken another hour before Lee was given the news, the British Science Reserve who were developing their own technology from advances made by the Program had tested the new Naquadah Generator that had been proposed to replace Nuclear Power plants, but the test had been inconclusive and the generator insulation casing had been faulty which was what had been detected as they challenged the power into the national grid.

With that news the British Government politely told them, with the military escorts with guns pushing them into the cars, to get back to Thames House as the mystery was solved.

Dr Lee and his team had no choice but to follow their request and they were driven straight back to into the heart of London where they were beamed up the _Apollo_ where they were then transported back to Area 51 or the SGC.

General Landry was waiting for a report from Lee when he arrived back at the SGC and he merely nodded and had him fill out a report which he would pass on to Jack in HWC and they closed the investigation.

**Battersea Power Station – Five Hours later**

During the five hours after the Americans had been driven off in the black Range, the security guard continued with his rounds before going back to his office and sitting down to watch the monitors and TV.

After five hours and a last sweep of the Battersea site he pulled out a phone from his back pocket and dialled a number.

"They are gone." Myles said, "I cannot find any surveillance devices"

"They did not detect anything?" Came the reply

"No, their devices were next to useless, they could barely penetrate the outer walls."

"Good."

"Any eyes in the sky?"

"None, the Space station is now circling South America, Lock the building down and close the security office and come down. Director Greyson has requested you meet with him before you leave."

"Fine I will be a couple of minutes." The guard said and he put his phone away and closed the security office and made his way to the metal door he had opened hours earlier and ignored the padlocks and inputted a code into the keypad and the door slid to the side without the need to unlock them.

He walked over to a seemingly normal bank of early twentieth century power production controls that covered the walls and there were a number of banks of them but he walked to the ones against a wall and stopped in front of a particular panel of dials and switches and seemingly flicked switches at random, then pulled up his sleeve to show his watch which he pressed a button on it and the wall panel simultaneously and the panel next to it was pulled inwards before sliding out of the way revealing a hidden elevator.

He stepped into the elevator and it began to descend immediately at a very fast speed before coming to a halt many stories under the Station above and a large iron door greeted him which slid sideways and revealed a very large open complex full of activity.

The space was incredibly large, most would compare it to an large aeroplane hangar, inside it were Goa'uld vessels, four Tel'taks, an Al'kesh, and two Death Gliders, also in the space was a F-302 and the remains of a Atlantis Puddle Jumper. All of which had teams of technicians working on them, they seemed to be running tests on the vessels or otherwise taking them apart.

Myles walked down the steps through the hangar passed the galactic ships and through a set of doors which led to the laboratories and workshops which were used to research and test new technologies.

His final destination was large chamber that was fitted with hologram projectors for use in training, as he entered he saw that there were eight soldiers, the same as the ones who had escorted the Americans to the site surrounding a single man.

He stood in the middle of the soldiers wearing a black close fitting suit made of what looked like a light weight material that looked like a tight fitting tracksuit.

It was an eight on one fight and the man in the middle did not seem to care that he was greatly outnumbered and facing soldiers who held metal asps with glowing blue tips that crackled with electrical energy. The soldiers had hit the man a number of times but the suit prevented the charge from stunning him but a moment later the man's palm glowed and an electrical pulse shot from it at a target stunning them.

In a flurry all of the soldiers began to attack and the Man defended himself using the suit and an asp of his own but the soldiers were unable to land a hit and when they did it seemed to do him no harm and he defeated them all.

"Director Greyson?" Myles said walking forward.

"Myles, I trust those pesky Americans are gone?" he asked as he stepped out of the training area.

"Yes sir, they didn't detect our operations down here." Jones reported "The tactical team took them to Thames House and is performing sweeps of the area to make sure nobody is spying on the Station."

"Good to hear, luckily the PM decided to actually listen to us today, otherwise our cover story would not have been as convincing as it was. The Americans cannot find us yet and neither can the world we are not ready." The Director told him putting his asp onto a table with other equipment. "I have had the necessary paper trail for the testing of a Naquadah generator put through the channels and back dated."

Greyson unzipped the suit and took it off and changed into a shirt and trousers.

"The suit functioned as expected?" Myles asked looking at it and he could see that up close there was micro wires throughout the material.

"That was merely a working prototype, and they will be developed further." The Director said and walked into an office where a file was sitting on a desk. "I have a new assignment for you, the Canadian facilities are building components needed for Titan, and you are to inspect how they are progressing."

"Of course, I will be in the air within the next three hours." Myles said "What is my assignment?"

"They may have made progress with a prototype weapon and a new sub light engine" Greyson told him "I want a report on viability, but they should be able to demonstrate the weapon and if you support its production I will approve it for Titan. After you will travel to another one of the facilities where they are making strides in a technology we will need for our investigations and gathering of evidence against our enemies."

There was a knock at the door and another man walked in, an intelligence operative.

"We have a CIA Intercept; they have sent a cell to find out what is happening here in the UK, Ireland, India and Australia." He reported "The Americans have also approached the Canadians for information; they have a better relationship with them as you know."

"Thank you John I will get right on that." Greyson said and turned to Myles "The IOA is behind this, they want to know why we are not playing nicely in their sandpit. They may not know about our operations but they could find leads, now get going I have a CIA team that I want chasing their own tails."

"I will go now."

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Please Review! Added to Favourite and Communities please!

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	16. Chapter 16

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Sixteen**

**Un ascended **

**Pegasus Galaxy – M4T-556 – Unoccupied Planet **

On the planet's surface stood an Atlantis team, following a lead from the databanks that had been on the partially terraformed planet. The planet was a mountainous and covered in lush forestation and lakes but it had never been inhabited by any race, possibly because the Gate was in space.

The database said that the Ancient Lanteans had been researching ascension on the planet and the higher planes of existence, and records indicated that the Lanteans communicated on a higher plane with their brethren.

The thought that they had developed technology that allowed the Ancients to communicate from the lower planes to the higher plane was too much to pass up and John had sent a science team with security to investigate, especially if it meant they could speak to the Ancient Lanteans themselves.

They had not found anything, but after six hours of searching some tempers were getting frayed but the fact that the technology was powerful and if in the wrong hands potentially dangerous so McKay was not disappointed by their lack of discovery, the Lanteans would have protected it and shielded it from detection.

He had found what could be described only as nothing, his scanners were finding no radiation or detect anything at all which had made him suspicious as they should be residual radiation from the planet but at the base of the mountain he received nothing.

Suddenly the ground beneath him shook and the sound of engines coming towards him and ships entered the atmosphere and began shooting at the planet surface.

"Spencer!" Rodney said tapping his ear piece "Garret?"

He tried to contact his team but received no response, fearing the worst he made his way back to the Jumper to dial Atlantis for help, he was almost back when three metal armoured humanoids stepped out in front of him and started to fire weapons.

Rodney jumped behind the tree line and ran as fast as he could to the Jumper, he couldn't fight them and weapons fire would be ineffective against the armour. The Vanir were on the planet, the offshoot of the Asgard.

He dashed into the jumper barely having time to close the rear hatch as an energy weapon hit the outer hull, he powered the jumper up and ascended to the air as fast as he could go. The Vanir vessels did not follow him as he broke out of the atmosphere and headed towards the gate and began to dial Atlantis.

As he pressed the third symbol on the DHD the Jumper diverted from its course and the control crystal trays in the rear compartment exploded and the lights turned off entirely.

"What!" Rodney exclaimed trying everything to turn the systems back on but it was useless the Jumper was dead. He opened the control crystal trays and saw that they were irreparable, whatever had caused the overload had severely damaged the crystals and he was not certain that he could do anything.

The only saving grace was that life support was still functional; with the climate controls set to slightly colder than he would have preferred but at least he would be alive until help came when they missed then scheduled check in with Atlantis.

But it seemed that the famed McKay luck was getting worse as in the distance was the systems star which the jumper was speeding towards even though its drive pods had deactivated it did not stop.

"Oh come on!" Rodney exclaimed and he pulled apart the Jumper looking for anything that could help him but nothing was responded to his command prompts and the system interface just gave him an unhelpful error, and he saw looked at the distant star and realised "I am going to die."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

John was in the middle of a sparring match with Ronon and Teyla and for the first time he was able to keep pace with them after all of the practice he had been given over the years, but he also had the advantage as Teyla and Ronon were both blindfolded.

"Colonel Sheppard!" said a male voice entering the training room

John turned to see Aaron Yardy a new control room technician standing there looking concerned and John was about to respond when a wooden sword hit him across the face

"Ow!" he said glaring at his friends unsure who had hit him. "Time out, what is it?"

"Sir, Dr McKay's team has failed to check in at the designated time." He said quickly.

"Have you dialled in to check on them?" he asked wondering what Rodney had got himself into this time.

"Yes Sir, we received no response."

"Okay send another team in a Jumper" John told him "I will be up to operation after I have showered."

"Yes Sir" Aaron said and he hurried off out of the room.

"Told you I should have gone with him" Ronon said whipping his face with a towel.

"It should have been a simple science mission." John told him, "I just didn't take in to account Rodney's habit of finding trouble."

"We should hurry, Rodney may be in trouble." Teyla said and they rushed to the Atlantis showers.

The showers on Atlantis, if you could call them showers, were very different from what they used on Earth. They were cubicles that poured both water and a jelly like liquid over a user before a chemical steam saturated them, it was very quick and very hygienic but most did not like the green jelly substance that removed impurities and dirt from the body.

"Colonel Sheppard please report to Operations immediately." Said a voice over the internal communication system.

"Damn" Sheppard muttered knowing something must be serious wrong he threw on the spare clothes that were in the showers, tracksuit bottoms and a black top and rushed to the transport booth to get to Operations.

Once the booth opened onto operations he saw that a Jumper had returned and was ascending to the bay

"What's going on" he asked looking at Chuck, Amelia and Aaron expectantly "is that Rodney or the second team?"

"Sir, Colonel Lorne had just returned from the planet after being pursued by the Vanir" Chuck explained "they did not get a chance to search for Dr McKay's team."

"The Vanir, what are they doing there?" John said asking no one in particular, he walked over to the closest terminal and brought up a star map of Pegasus and input a command that displayed all of Atlantis's ships within the Galaxy, none were very close to the planet. "The _Daedalus _is at Mesaline, dial the Alpha site now."

The gate was dialled and they connected to the Alpha site which was commanded by Lucca who had once been a Traveller.

"Sheppard, we were not expecting a dial in." Lucca said surprised, "How can we help Atlantis?"

"Please can you ask Colonel Caldwell to beam down so we can talk?" John asked patiently.

"One moment." Lucca told him sending a message up to _Daedalus_ and there was a flash of light behind him as the Colonel beamed down.

"Colonel?" Caldwell greeted, "What do you need."

John filled him in on the current situation and Caldwell prepared to leave immediately, but it would take five hours.

"Sir, do we send reinforcements through the gate?" Arron asked.

"No, we can't, the Vanir will be waiting by the gate, and they know that is the only way we can get there." John told him, "dial that gate, we can try to contact the teams using the communicators they have on them."

"We can use Atlantis's communication array to send the signal through the gate, it should be powerful enough to cover the planet" Chuck said agreeing with Johns plan and he used the terminal to boost the transmitter power, "Okay go ahead."

"This is Sheppard, calling all Atlantis personnel does anybody receive me?"

They received only static in response which John did not take as a good sign so he changed the message.

"This is High Councillor John Sheppard of Atlantis calling Vanir Forces; you have targeted a planet with my people on it, if you have killed them you are making an enemy of a people who were allies of your Asgard brothers and who are the children of the Ancients." He said "Do you really think you are making a good choice."

They received a response a moment later.

"This is Egil, we do not recognise you as an ally." Said a familiar Asgard voice "Your people are dead, and we seek only what you do. To be able to reach the higher plane of existence, where the Ancients and others now reside, you have been warned."

"My people were good friends with the Supreme Commander of the Asgard Fleet, Thor was a personal friend to Earth." John told them, "Why are you so hell bent of being different from your kin?"

"We are the Vanir, we left Ida millennia ago when the Ancients still resided in this Galaxy" Egil Explained "We split from the Aesir faction of the Asgard thousands of years we are not the same Asgard you are familiar with. The Aesir-Vanir war was fought over a philosophical debate, we lost and rather than submit to the High Council we fled in secret, we continue the experiments that the Aseir faction banned so that we may find a cure. We do not seek your friendship nor do we welcome communication between our peoples."

The communication ended and John didn't bother trying to contact them again.

"Well that went well." He said rolling his eyes but they had learnt a little more about the Vanir, he personally did not know much about them and the expert on the species was currently MIA with the Asgard Core.

**Pegasus Galaxy – M4T-556 System – Puddle Jumper**

Rodney was panicking now, the temperature within the Jumper had grown very hot as the Jumper travelled towards the star, in the five hours that it had been since he had tried to dial the gate the Jumper had travelled a great distance and the star was very large in the front window and its heat was penetrating the hull.

As a precaution he moved into the rear compartment to try and shield him from the intense radiation but he knew it wouldn't last, the jumpers were not built for this sort of hard radiation, and all of his attempts to power up the systems or anything had failed miserably.

He sat cowered in the rear of the compartment wondering what was happening on Atlantis right now and if help was on the way, the Vanir had not pursued him which he assumed was because it had been them who had tampered with the Jumpers systems.

He only hope was that when his team failed to report back to Atlantis that a second team would have been sent to look for them, but he had no idea if they would be able to track the Jumper, especially as it was a great distance from where it should be.

"Please help me" Rodney said out loud is desperation "I can't die yet, there has to be something that can be done."

**Pegasus Galaxy – M4T-556 System – USS Daedalus **

The Daedalus dropped out of hyperspace close to the planet, and when they did they immediately detected four Vanir ships all of which were powering shields and weapons.

"This is Colonel Caldwell of the Lantean ship _Daedalus_" Caldwell announced "leave this system to prevent the loss of your ships, you have no hope of matching the strength of this vessel."

The ships did not hesitate and continued to approach and they fired yellow pulses of energy weapon at the Daedalus which were ineffective as its shield protected them.

"If you look at your sensors you will see that your weapons fire did not reduce our shield strength." Caldwell said "You are no matched for our technology, technology we acquired from the Asgard who were our allies."

"We know of Asgard technology, is it not that strong." Egil responded, "Even in the millennia since we separated they would not have progressed so far."

The four ships surrounded the _Daedalus_ and opened fire and a tremendous amount of bolts fired at their shields which held strong.

"Well if that is the way they want to play" Caldwell said turning to his weapons officer "give them each a shot of the beam weapons, give them minimal power, show them the effectiveness our weapons fire."

"Yes sir" Captain Cooper said and she powered the weapons and a volley of the beam weapons hit the Vanir ships.

"Sir we are detecting that their shield strength fluctuated significantly" Lieutenant Stuart reported, "Our shields are holding at eighty-nine percent, I am detecting a high energy increase in all four ships."

"They are going to flee." Caldwell said watching the ships begin to manoeuvre away from them he pressed a button on his chair "Vanir vessels, as you can see our vessels are far superior to your own, if we cross paths again we will not hesitate to destroy your ships, let this be a warning."

They received no reply and they jumped to hyperspace leaving them behind.

"Get us closer to that planet, perform a scan for life signs and try to find the Jumper." Caldwell ordered.

The Daedalus spent an hour searching the planet using sensors and had even sent a jumper of their own down to the planet looking for them but they found nothing other than bodies of the dead team members.

"_Daedalus_ come in" said the jumper Pilot.

"Go ahead Anders" Caldwell replied knowing who had been sent to the planet from Atlantis.

"We have found all members of the science team and security team sent with Dr McKay, none are left alive." Anders reported "However we have not found Dr McKay or their Jumper."

"So is it possible that McKay managed to leave the planet?" Caldwell asked, "You have found no possible wreckage?"

"It is possible, did Atlantis receive an incoming wormhole?" Anders asked "that would be his only exit."

"According to Atlantis they received no such dial in." he said he turned to Stuart "The Jumper could be out here, expand sensors scan this system, or he might have cloaked the Jumper."

"Would he not have contacted us by now? Or made himself known?" Cooper interjected and it was obvious she didn't think it would do much good.

"Carry out my orders." Caldwell said firmly, he did not like McKay but he knew that the annoying Canadian scientist was brilliant and would be a great loss to Atlantis.

They had not detected anything at all and many believed that McKay was dead or had been kidnapped by the Vanir. They were doing a final sweep of the system before they would jump to hyperspace to return to Atlantis to report the news.

**Pegasus Galaxy – M4T-556 System – Puddle Jumper**

The heat within the Jumper was now hotter than could be endured by a human, Rodney had drank all of the water and was sitting in only his underwear trying to keep his body temperature low, but it did not make a difference, he knew he was a dead man walking, he had been exposed to extreme amounts of radiation and had he been able to see through his blurry vision he would see that he had a nasty looking sun burn.

He could do no more, as he could barely think straight or stand, for all his mental prowess he had been stuck on the Jumper and was condemned to death. He had thought about trying to ascend he had nearly managed it before but with delirium from the heat setting in he had been unable to keep the idea in his mind.

He was about to pass out when a bright light entered the rear compartment in front of him, he could barely see it and thought he was hallucinating, the light was fuzzy as his eyes closed as he was slipping into unconsciousness but he thought he saw it transform into a person with long hair who reached towards him

"You are safe Rodney" a voice whispered to him and Doctor McKay knew no more and his mind shut his body down.

**Pegasus Galaxy – M4T-556 System – USS Daedalus **

Caldwell ordered the Daedalus to leave the System and jump to hyperspace, they had not been able to find any trace of the jumper and they could not spend any more time looking in the vastness of space.

Captain Cooper input the hyperspace co-ordinated and tried to activate the hyperdrive but it failed "Sir, the Hyperdrive is active but it is not responding" she reported pressing buttons in front of her trying to find out what was wrong but a moment later the ship lurched forward and a hyperspace window opened and they entered the blue dimension of subspace. "Sir, I don't know what happened but the drive responded and we are on our way, I will begin diagnostics."

"Do we need to drop out?" Caldwell asked wondering if the drive was damaged and risked the safety of the ship.

"No –"

"Colonel Caldwell this is Doctor Taylor in the infirmary." A male voice said in Caldwell's ear.

"Yes Doctor" Caldwell responded

"Colonel, sir we have located Doctor McKay" Dr Taylor said disbelievingly.

"I am sorry?" Caldwell said shocked standing up "McKay is on the ship?"

"Yes Sir, he just appeared in the Infirmary, I turned and he was on the floor behind me." Taylor said "He is in bad shape but is alive."

"I will be right down." Caldwell said and he left the Bridge and nearly ran to the infirmary when he entered he saw the medical staff surrounding a bed on which lay an unconscious red McKay. "Doctor what happened to him?"

"I am not sure but with this damage to his skin I would guess that he has been exposed to close contact to a sun, but there is no radiation, he is dehydrated and unresponsive but is very much alive." Taylor said walking over "we are giving him an infusion to hydrate him, but his body had suffered damage and it will take some time for him to wake."

"How did he appear?" Caldwell asked "did anyone see him?"

"No I turned my back for a moment, there was a bright light and I turned and he was there." Taylor told him, "But what I want to know is how he received these injuries, I said they must have come from a sun, but to be as close as I think he must have been would have saturated him with radiation that would be akin to him being at the centre of a nuclear bomb and would be dead within an hour."

"Are you saying that the radiation was removed from him?" Caldwell questioned.

"I am not sure, but according to his medical files he had been exposed to radiation in the past and it left traces in his body, but I cannot find any trace of that either." Taylor said frowning at the unconscious man, "he is a mystery."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Higher Planes **

An Ascended being watched from a distance as the Daedalus left the system and smiled they had managed to save Dr McKay from certain death.

"You were foolish to do that young one." Said a voice from behind the being, the second being was much taller than the first and of a different race.

"I know, but I had no choice, I couldn't let him die." The women said sadly, "He wouldn't give up on someone he cared for either."

"The Others are already on their way." The second being said with no emotion "You will be punished for this."

"I know and I accept my punishment" the women said shaking her head "I am not ready for ascension."

"Your people are young, you have so many questions that you want answers to," the second, "In time you may be ready, but you are too young and emotions rule your actions."

"Perhaps but that makes us strong." The women said smiling, "Your Brethren must be used to us not listening to the rules."

"I am the only one of my kind to take this form" the second being admitted "The Ancients may have their flaws but the rules protect the lower plane but perhaps it is time we interacted."

"You look familiar." The women said looking at the odd looking tall being with thin limbs and a large domed head.

"I do." The second being said smiling "In time you might find out why, but you need to leave."

"Where do I go?" she asked.

"Take human form again." The being said simply, "you are not the first to do so."

"Okay, but I need to find my people." The woman said, "Will you say thank you to my friend."

"I will speak to him" the being said "I will deposit you on a world where you will be found and you will return to your people soon."

"Why are you helping me?" she asked

"The Vanir are trying to find Ancient technology that can affect our plane, the weapon Merlin created was one such technology that was theorised by the Ancient Lanteans but was never built." The being explained "They wish to use one such technology that was created to force the Ascended back to their plane in mortal form. This cannot happen. The universe is not ready for us to interact on such a level."

"How will I help, I won't have my memories." She asked remembering all she had read on Daniels experiences with ascension.

"No, but your minds are stronger than you would believe, a latent memory will be buried in the deepest parts of your mind, almost unreachable but it will guide you in time." The being said and he turned and looked into the distance "We do not have long."

"I accept your help," she said "but what is your name?"

The being smirked "Odr is my name" he said and transformed into energy and threw himself at the woman who was pulled away to a distant planet, where he deposited a naked woman in a front of convent where she would be discovered by the peaceful people who inhabited the world.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

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	17. Chapter 17

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Seventeen**

**Turbulent Waters**

**Pegasus Galaxy - Lantea – Atlantis**

John had a headache. This was not a new sensation but today he had been forced to sit through an IOA committee meeting on Atlantis where the seven senior IOA figures from Earth all but made official demands of him.

Their first demand had been to have a permanent Civilian oversight panel on Atlantis who would have to authorise all operations before he allowed anything to happen on the city. Within this demand they also wanted the High Council of Atlantis disbanded as it did not function within a modern society.

Their second demand was for John to step down from his position as Commander of the Atlantis Expedition and the abdication of his title of High Councillor of Lantea. They told him that he could either be retained as military commander of Atlantis forces or even the captain of the newest BC304 that was in production but could not promise that he would be stationed in Pegasus.

Their third demand was the turning over of all Zero Point Modules so that Earth may benefit from them, as well as further technology Atlantis had in its arsenal including the Tria, Exogenesis device and schematics and designs for Ancient technology that the Expedition had discovered.

Their fourth demand was for the removal of the Traveller portion of Lantean Society, they would be allowed to remain on the mainland but in exchange Atlantis was to receive twenty percent of any trade or salvage they collected. They also demanded that the Athosians again be sent from the city and that they pay Atlantis fifty percent of their profits from the Free Market to pay for the care they have received.

The meeting had been held in front of the entire Lantean Council and had been met with hostility and shock. Understandably both Teyla and Larrin had been outraged but their demands but their anger paled in comparison to Johns.

He sat there in a cold silent fury glaring at the IOA members dressed in their expensive suits who thought them his superiors from another galaxy and fully under their control.

"No." John said in a calm voice that was only betrayed by the rage that could be seen in his eyes.

"What do you mean no?" Mr Strom asked started "This is a direct command from the IOA and Homeworld Command, if you are not careful Colonel we will forcibly remove you from command."

"No I will tell you what will happen." John said firmly "You are going to be escorted to your rooms where you will pack your bags and you will then gate back to Earth. Under no circumstances will Atlantis be an outpost for the IOA greed or bureaucracy. As of now Atlantis is independent of Earth, I would have considered giving Earth technology in order to keep it safe, but I will not have the likes of you come here into my city and make demands of the people that I lead and protect. No Mr Storm you have no power here at all, you can have a presidential order signed but you can tell the President and leaders of each country that the reason Atlantis will not yield any further developments is because of you parasites."

"You cannot be serious" said Miss Shen Xiaoyi the representative of China, "You cannot survive without our funding, and this city is property of Earth and the IOA!"

"No this City belongs to those that wish to defend Pegasus" John snapped "I am the leader of this city, I have the support of the people of this city and those that matter on Earth, beside me are fellow leaders of the Lantean Society all of which represent the many portions of the population and you have just sat there insulting each and every one of them."

"As of now all support from the Atlantis Expedition will stop, you will receive no technology, research or any other help from the Ancient Database, and when Borealis is finally ready to be transported it will not be sent to Earth, you have spat in our face and now you will reap what you sow."

"If you think that we will allow…" Strom tried to say but he didn't finish his sentence before John spoke over him.

"We are done. We may speak to Earth on occasion but under no circumstances will I allow another member of the IOA through the gate or on this city again." John told him bluntly.

"We will leave and report this to the IOA, General O'Neill and your President." Strom said standing up in outrage, "But be warned Sheppard, you have all but declared war on Earth."

"War?" John questioned "I do not want war, I want peace, but you insist on trying to dismantle a society that works well on its own and does not need your authority. You will go back to Earth and deliver this message; Atlantis will be an independent state until such a time that IOA is removed from all actions relating to our functions in this galaxy or our continued efforts to combat the Wraith. Until you are removed from the chain of command and oversight we shall be an alien race whom could possibly be you ally."

"We will pass it on" said François said stacking up his papers.

"General you should know that this may not end well." Emily Gregson told him calmly, she represented the UK and through the entire meeting had sat silent and watched carefully.

"Woolsey you are coming back with us." Strom ordered angrily.

"No." Shepard said sternly.

"Richard Woolsey is a member of the IOA and is here under our authority." He exclaimed.

"No, Mr Woolsey is a citizen of Lantea and a key member of the Lantean Council." John countered "However he is a free man and I will not allow you to make demands of him, he will make his own choice."

All eyes turned to Woolsey who sat upright and wearily cleaned his glasses.

"I understand that as a ranking member of the IOA you expect me to follow your directive Mr Strom but over the last few years I have also become a part of Lantean society, I do not feel that your actions here today have endeared you to these people, and I feel that whilst High Councillor Sheppard's" Woolsey said putting emphasis on Johns correct Lantean title "arguments and conditions are extreme are not unwarranted. I will return to Earth with you but I resign from my position as a member of the IOA instead I believe I will be better suited to act as the Ambassador of Lantea to Earth."

John raised his brows surprised, he had not expected that at all, but it was not a bad idea.

"Richard you cannot agree with these people!" Strom asked as though Woolsey had admitted to being a Goa'uld. "They are trying to break away from our oversight and the sovereignty of Earth."

"No you have forced us to take this position." Woolsey told him, "Now shall we collect our belongings, I am sure you have an appointment you need to make with the president."

"Fine, but you should know that this is not the end, the IOA will not let this matter go unpunished."

"Then I for one hope that the IOA's days are numbered!" John shouted "Security! Escort our visitors to their rooms and have them back in the gate room in twenty minutes!"

The security officers immediately followed the orders and the IOA were led out, leaving Woolsey with the Council.

"You know that was not handled well." Woolsey stated.

"No, but it is what it is." John shrugged.

**Pegasus – Lantea – Atlantis – Two Days later**

After the IOA had left, Earth had been silent for twelve hours before the gate activated and the SGC dialled in, it was clear that the IOA was pressuring the US government and Landry communicated that their demands were to be followed immediately.

John refused and again stated his own demands that Atlantis be left outside the IOA oversight and control as they were so far outside of the jurisdiction but Landry had silently communicated that was not possible as the IOA was insistent.

But life on Atlantis continued and Doctor McKay was busy at work aboard the Tria trying to get it fully operational after the many months of it being docked on a pier. The Ancient Lantean interstellar hyperdrive had been painstakingly removed and studied and it had been fixed and patched with Asgard components and they had reinstalled the drivers and it worked, although it was not as efficient as it was originally, the drive was fast, and could cross the Pegasus galaxy much faster than the Asgard intergalactic drive but it was limited to one galaxy, not that it mattered to Atlantis.

The ship had been thoroughly tested and stripped to make sure that every system and part worked as it should, they had tested its drone capabilities after transferring one hundred drones from the city, its main weapon, the Grodin Cannon was tested for the first time and it was functional but the scientists were worried about the weapons operation but the tests had all be successful, and the pulse cannon turrets that lined the ship for anti-fighter defence were all operational.

Rodney was going through the last simulations and diagnostics of the entire ship making sure that it was fully operational and searching for any anomalies in the key systems when suddenly the terminal he sat at locked him out and the displays showed only the ships name and refused to respond to his prompts and commands.

The ship began to hum as the engineers initialised and power was generated from its power core and the zpm that they had installed, Atlantis released its docking clamps and the ship activated its anti-gravity thruster and it lifted off the city pier and began to divert power to the thrusters and sublight engines.

"McKay this is Sheppard, what are you doing?" John asked over the radio.

"Nothing! The Ship is flying itself!" Rodney exclaimed running as fast as he could to the bridge having been in the auxiliary control room "I think I triggered something in its systems."

"Well deactivate it!" came the reply.

"I tried! The ship has locked me out of all systems it has activated and it is not allowing any tampering with the ship!" Rodney huffed reaching a bulkhead door and trying to get it open, "I need help! I have no idea what it is doing and need I remind you that I cannot fly this ship it is tied directly to your signature."

"Hold tight." John replied

The bulkhead door opened and Rodney continued to hurry towards the bridge and when he arrived he was surprised to see that every system was active like they were being manned by personnel which should have been impossible since they had switched them off and they hadn't been initialised by anyone with the ATA gene.

The display showed that the ship was accelerating away from the City and glided out over the oceans before angling towards sky. He tried to deactivate the ship using the consoles but it failed to recognise his manual commands so he tried the command chair and used his ATA gene to activate the neural interface, the chair recognised the command but ship failed to respond.

"Sheppard! I can't stop it!" Rodney said weakly, "I have tried everything but cutting off the power in the engineering rooms but I don't think that is a good idea."

"Rodney can you access the beaming controls?" Sheppard asked

"No, the consoles are not recognising anything I input."

"Okay, I have another idea"

Just as the ship exited the atmosphere and accelerated away from Lantea an alarm sounded from a console, Rodney walked over and saw that the ship detected five life signs aboard.

"Sheppard is that you?"

"Of course it is!" Sheppard drawled "We used the Rings in the base of the Tower."

"How did you know that the Tria had rings?" Rodney asked surprised.

"They are a standard technology of Ancient ships" John said and the signal cut out but a door behind him opened and he saw John, Ronon, Teyla, Larrin and Keller exit the transport booth, "If I remember correctly you said they were installed because they allowed transportation through shields."

"Well how about we try and get this ship to –"Larrin began to say but the bridges systems beeped and then the ship jumped to hyperspace "McKay what were you doing to this ship before it activated?"

"I was running a full diagnostic of its systems making sure that it was ready for battle." Rodney shrugged "I did not activate a single system it was diagnostics and simulations."

John walked over to the command chair, closed his eyes and placed his hands on the interface plates "It's not recognising me either, even my override commands are being ignored. But I have found out where we are going." He said and opened his eyes to glare at Rodney, "It's a predetermined location built into the nav system that would transport the ship direct to the Ancient front lines for battle against the Wraith."

"But that battle was thousands of years ago." Teyla said "the Ancestors lost the war."

McKay closed his eyes in horror and shook his head "When we reinstalled the hyperdrive we deactivated the ships datacore and cut the connection of every system, when the drive was replaced we reconnected the ship to the data core and it reinstalled the systems. Think of it like a factory condition reset! It thinks that the war is still in effect and it is following orders, the diagnostics I ran showed that all systems were operating and the ship was battle ready."

Larrin walked over to the navigation system and tried to bring up the starcharts but the command was ignored "They Ancestors lost the war and most of their controlled space fell into the Wraiths hands, this front line may still be their territory."

"Is there anyway of stopping this ship?" John asked Rodney "force it to drop out of hyperspace?"

"That is not a good idea, we have no idea where we are or where we are going, we could drop out in a planet or star" Rodney said thinking about it, "The ship is ready for battle and I am hoping that the moment we exit hyperspace the ships lockout with deactivate."

"That is a big if Rodney!" John said "Can't you break through the lockout?"

"No!" Rodney snapped "Do you think I haven't tried?"

"Fine" John said "According to the chair we are three hours away from our destination, so Larrin show Ronon how to use the ships systems, Teyla and Jenifer I know you are familiar with this technology, take a seat at any station and get comfortable."

"What about me?" Rodney asked "Do I get the chair?"

"No." John said and he sat down in the command chair and even though it did not allow his neural commands he knew that it recognised him as commander, "You are going to sit at the diagnostic terminal and try and find us a way out of this mess, I do not need to be away from the city at the moment."

"Fine." Rodney huffed and he sat down at a terminal and connected his tablet to it.

In the three hours that the travelled through hyperspace the Atlantis team had been unable to bypass the ships default programming and Rodney had tried everything even attempted to rewrite the base code of the operating system but the ship had detected his intrusion and locked out his access to the ships systems.

John sat contemplating the lockout and wondered if it was created to prevent a Lantean ship from fleeing a battle, they were the ones who built the ship so it made him wonder why they would program such a thing into the ship.

The ship alerted them that it was preparing to drop out of hyperspace.

"Everyone get ready, let's see what the Tria wanted us to see." John said and he braced himself against his chair and as the ship shifted from subspace to real space the lockout of the ships systems lifted.

Through the bridge observation window they saw that they had arrived in a star system with four planets and three large stars and sitting in the system was an armada of wraith vessels.

"That is a hell of fleet." Rodney whispered and he was pale.

"Sheppard we need to leave. Now!" Larrin warned "This ship is strong but not that strong."

"Agreed." John said and he placed his hand on the chair and directed the ship to jump to hyperspace but he only received a negative response from the ship with every command he tried. "Rodney? Why is the hyperdrive not responding?"

Rodney began to run a diagnostic and found the problem immediately "The ship is detecting a fault in the hyperdrive, the system thinks it's a fatal fault they will cause the ship to be destroyed if we try to enter hyperspace so the ship will not allow us to make a jump."

"Is there something wrong with the drive?" Larrin asked "or is it just a fault in the diagnostic system?"

"I don't know" Rodney admitted "The drive had worked fine in all other tests."

"Well I don't want to be the barer of bad new but the wraith seem to have detected us and are coming towards us." Jenifer said in a high voice.

The fleet was coming head on towards them and it was something that John knew they were not able to defeat, even with an Ancient Lantean warship.

"Shields up" John ordered and Larrin did as he ordered and the powerful contoured shields flickered into existence over the ship, "Activate the zpm and have its power add to the ships, bring all energy weapons online." Rodney brought the zpm online while Teyla and Ronon activated the weapons.

John propelled the ship forwards at its top speed and it banked away from the approaching ships.

The Grodin cannon was deployed but before they could take a shot with it at the enemy a great stream of darts exited the hives and cruisers and it would render any shots useless which was probably why they had been deployed.

"The main portion of that fleet are hanging back only four hives and six cruisers are following the waves of darts." Jenifer said "Rodney can you not fix whatever is wrong?"

"I wish that I could but the ship cannot discern which component it responsible for the fault."

"Okay then boys and girls things are just about to get interesting" John said "the darts are just about to enter weapons range."

John directed his thoughts to the weapons turrets all over the ship and brought them online, the weapons received the necessary power from the engines and as the ships passed into weapons range they opened fire automatically, with the ship sensors feeding them the location of the darts they targeted them autonomously.

"Ronon, Teyla both of you are in control of a number of the turrets make sure that any stragglers are taken out that the automated defences fail to shoot down." John ordered "Larrin I will get you are shot at the leading hives but they will not remain idle once I begin to manoeuvre."

"Get me an opening and I will make the shots." Larrin promised, the main Groddin weapon channelled the raw power of the zpm and it began to buffer its considerable energy and waited for Larrin to release it.

John moved the Tria at full sublight, but as he began to move the ship blue bolts of energy from the darts, hives and cruisers hit the shields but it caused a minimal reduction in shield strength, not wasting a moment he pushed the engines harder and the enemy presented a target and as they did three lances of green energy streaked out of the main weapon in quick succession and hit three targets.

"Good shooting!" John complimented.

"Don't count your chickens Sheppard." Jenifer reported "they remaining fleet are beginning to move and they are heading straight for us.

The two hives and single cruiser that they had hit had been crippled but were salvageable, the weapon was not as effective at such a long range but it had stopped them firing, but they would not be able to strike them back.

"We have to flee" Larrin said "McKay, have you any guesses what the problem is?"

Rodney didn't respond immediately as his screen flickered through the schematics and readings from the drives, "I don't actually think anything is wrong with the drive, the system thinks a component had burnt out or is damaged but I think what it actually is the Asgard part we used to replace the Ancient Lantean one and the ship is detecting the difference."

"Is it safe for us to jump to hyperspace?" John asked "is the part working?"

"Yes yes, it should be fine, but I might be wrong." Rodney said impatiently.

"How sure are you? remember this is your life we are dealing with" Larrin snapped, her patience limit reached.

"Eighty five percent" Rodney said hastily, "Or at least eighty."

"Enemy fleet is now entering weapons range." Jenifer reported and she was not wrong as the ship shook slightly as the barrage of enemy fire hit the shields, the turrets were managing to fend of the darts but they were useless against the bigger ships.

John drummed his fingers and thought of a way out, and he could see only one and he told them what he was going to do, it was mad but it would catch the wraith by surprise and they would be able to escape.

The Tria accelerated fast and changed is trajectory entirely and began to charge directly at the opposing fleet, the turrets fired tirelessly punching a path through the darts and through the path fired a continuous succession of Groddin fire, they caused severe damage with each hit and the Tria pushed further and further and its shield strength was being reduced down to forty percent when suddenly the ship made the jump to hyperspace.

"Sheppard what was the point of that?" Larrin asked once they were safe "you endangered the ship."

Rodney had by-passed the safety protocol and the ship had been able to make the jump and they had survived entering the window, but he had wanted to hurt the wraith.

"It was a message, Atlantis is out here and with a single ship we were able to just damage a massive portion of their fleet without taking any of our own damage" John explained "it will take them time to regenerate the damage section and get those ships ready to exit that system. I think that will get the Queens attention."

"Why would we want their attention?" Jenifer asked "I thought you wanted the city to remain hidden."

"I do, but it might stop their attacks on human worlds for a time." John said hopefully, it was unlikely but he hoped it might curb their destruction.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

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	18. Chapter 18

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Chapter Eighteen**

**New Action**

**Pegasus Galaxy – Vulcia – Temple of Grace**

The planet of Vulcia was a quiet tranquil green world on which the people lived relatively peaceful lives of quite worship and meditation, growing large quantities of food which it traded through the 'Gate for other supplies.

Resting at the top of a valley at the foot of a large group of snow tipped mountains was a large building built of marble and had been cut with such precision and beauty it was unlike any building other than a twin building on the opposite side of the continent.

This building was known as the Temple of Grace, a convent for female novices led by an elder novice called the Mother Superior. The Sisterhood of Grace were healers, gardeners and practiced meditation daily in the hopes of finding enlightenment and reach those that led them to the path of enlightenment.

It seemed to be an ordinary day in the convent when the bells of Saint Joana sounded and they rose for the morning, it was a shock for the sisters to find a naked woman in the temple gardens.

The woman was unconscious but seemed otherwise healthy so the sisters helped her to a room to rest and clothed her.

Novice Talia sat with the women and she looked at her long black curls, and kind face and wondered what had happened to her, the outline villages in the valley had not seen anything unusual and no soul had seen the ring of the ancestors open.

The naked women opened her eyes after an hour and she looked up at the Novice was confusion.

"Sorry but where am I?" she asked looking around at everything.

"I am Novice Talia of the Sisterhood of Grace." Talia sound bowing respectfully, "You are in the Temple that we tend."

"I see," she replied and she sat up and examined the clothes that she now wore "How did I get here?"

"I was hoping that you would tell us." Said a wise old voice.

Talia stood up from here chair and bowed her head again "Mother Superior you startled me."

"You can leave for morning meditations Novice Talia" Mother superior said, walking into the room and taking the now empty seat and sat after arranging her red robes, but she did not remove the hood. "I will speak with our guest."

"Yes mother." Talia said and she left quickly.

"You were found this morning by our sisterhood, naked as a new born babe in front of the ancient trees in the gardens here." The women explained "How did you come to be at the convent?"

"I don't know." The woman frowned "I – sorry but I don't know, the only thing that I remember is waking up in this room."

"Do you have a name?" Mother asked "We all have names, my own is Elsif."

The woman was silent for a while, she tried to think of her name, she knew that she had a name but couldn't recall it. She tried to remember anything about herself and she couldn't, but she knew that her clothes were made of fine silk, and could name every item that she could see and knew its function but could not remember ever seeing them before.

"I don't know." She admitted "I do have one that I know but I do not know it."

"You are not the first to be found in our temple as you were, or in the Temple of light where our brothers reside." Mother superior contemplated "there are stories of those that have fallen from the heavens to come and study here in our temples but most left on crusades."

The woman frowned she knew what the Mother was talking of, in her mind she knew that what she was describing was not at all mysterious but a method of returning but she couldn't access the memories she needed.

"What do I do now?" she asked.

"For now you must eat" Mother said calmly "You are welcome here until you are ready to leave us, you will need to work but you will find it most tranquil here."

The woman smiled happily, she was glad to be welcomed and she knew that she needed to stay on the planet, it was part of a plan, but what plan she couldn't say but she knew it was important that she stay where she was for now.

**Black Eye Galaxy – USS Odyssey – Asgard Core Room**

The missing Odyssey and George Hammond were still within the Black Eye Galaxy months after they had pin pointed their position within the universe.

Once Daniel had worked out where they were using that Asgard core they had plotted a direct Hyperspace jump to the closest Galaxy with a Stargate which was the Andromeda Galaxy but after weeks of trying to make the jump they still had not been able to leave their current Galaxy.

When they tried to enter hyperspace to travel across the voids between the galaxies and even through the outer rim of the Black Eye Galaxy they were thrown from subspace back into normal space time as the hyperspace engines failed and the system dropped them out due to safety protocols.

Sam had run every diagnostic and compared sensors readings between both ships and studied the space they now occupied and had almost found nothing. Every system and part she checked on the ships was working perfectly, the hyperdrive system would not work due to something effecting their presence in subspace.

She had been in the middle of reading subspace transmissions and background noise to see if something in them was the cause when Daniel had summoned her to the Odyssey as he had found the reason they were stuck.

"What is it Jackson?" Cam asked not beating around the bush, he was getting incredibly frustrated being stuck on the ship and wanted off at the first opportunity.

Daniel nodded and snuck a glance at Sam at Cam's attitude and brought up a holographic display on the Asgard core and brought up a star chart overlaid with visual representations of stars and systems making the room a virtual miniaturised universe.

"I told you we were in the Black Eye Galaxy and that the Asgard had sent out probes here to study this corner of the universe." Jackson said "And it got me thinking why would the Asgard who had just begun the war with the replicators be so interested in this galaxy. The answer to that is what makes this galaxy so special."

"What is that?" Cam asked looking at the representation of it on the hologram, it was just a large cluster of colour, planets and stars surrounded by a black ring but was then surrounded a nebulous cloud of purple, yellow and green. "Just looks like a very colourful galaxy."

"This outer circle is what makes this galaxy special, according to the core thousands of years ago, possibly even when the Alterans fled the Celestis Galaxy there was a great war, and it was in this devastating war that this nebular was created from a weapon." Daniels said "according to Asgard research and history they found that this surrounding space once was three small minor dwarf galaxies that formed this local cluster, the Asgard found remnants of planets and moons in the gasses."

"What has this got to do with the hyper drives Daniel?" Sam asking not understanding his point other than to give a history lesson.

"I don't know what races were in the war, but one of them created this entire nebular and it created what I can only discern to be a breach in local time and space." Daniel said quickly "the weapon created a rift in this place where the rules of our science does not work as it should, this rift is what is preventing us traveling in hyperspace."

Cam looked to Sam for her opinion, it sounded insane to him.

"Your saying that there is a rift in time and space here?" she asked frowning at the absurdity of it "What could have created that?"

"The Asgard never found out what it was, the core hints that the Ancient Altera and Furling knew what happened here, and they guessed that the Nox would know as they are such an old race but they only guessed that it was a weapon that could break the laws of physics." Daniel told them "We can get home, but it will mean we will have to fly to the edge of the nebular to then plot another course back to Earth or gate network."

"What is this called then Jackson, did our friends the Asgard ever name it?" Cam asked looking at the colours again "This is getting a bit too close to Sci-Fi for me anyway."

"They called it The Medusa Cascade, I am not certain where the name came from." Daniel shrugged "Medusa is a Greek mythological creature so I would have to research it."

"Daniel this is a vast area to travel" Sam said plotting the necessary course into the core to get a time frame "if the Ancients knew about this place did they not put a gate system in place?"

"It would depend if they would have wanted to." Daniel said "As far as I know there are none, the Ancients might not have been interested in setting up outposts and facilities here so didn't have the gates in place, Destiny didn't seed a network either, but without a location of a Gate we can't find it."

Sam thought about the information Daniel had found and accessed her own data on the George Hammond that came from the ship sensors monitoring subspace and the computers had identified a very odd disturbance in that dimension, it was not unlike the Ancient Lantean Attero device, generating a frequency disruption field that spanned the entire cascade, it was not a single frequency but operated across the band and had no source.

"I think we may be lucky that our ships safety protocols detected this, I don't even know what would have happened if were in hyperspace in this distortion." She told them "It could have ripped our ships apart."

"If this thing prevents hyperspace travel then how the hell did we get into this galaxy?" Cam asked "We would have had to have passed through it."

"The shockwave that hit us as we entered hyperspace must have pushed us through the distortion and it may have even cloaked the ship in a localised field that prevented the cascades effect. It was a fluke of chance but it shouldn't have been possible but it allowed us through and I would not want to try something like that again." Sam explained "This is an incredible discovery this breaks every theory we currently have and we really should study this but we need to get home."

"Have you plotted a course?" Daniel asked her.

"Yes, but it is not going to be easy, our ships life support systems are being taxed heavily but we should be able to get home or at least to a Gate, but we need to be careful if we get into trouble out here we will be on our own and I wouldn't want these ships damaged here." Sam told them and she transferred data to each ships bridge to be plotted into the navigation computers. "Earth needs these ships and Earth needs to know what the IOA is doing."

"Well let's get going" Cam said happily "But Sam try and find any way to contact Earth, they must know that we are alive."

"I will try but at this distance I don't think I can do much."

"Try anyway." Cam pleaded.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – United Kingdom – Govan **

Most world powers considered the United Kingdom a relic of the past, a former world superpower but now a puppet for the United States of America but the country was one of the five signatories of the Gate Alliance and had a seat on the IOA board but in true sense of world power it was lagging behind the curve.

The British government had purchased its first interstellar ship from the United States which had subsequently been lost in circumstances that had still not been fully explained or understood and the loss of ship and finances had hit the country hard and was entering a financial depression.

Oddly it was during this time that the Ministry of Defence had petitioned for the country to acquire all of the worlds current technological schematics to build a shipyard of their own without relying on the Americans for ships and technology and the MOD had the necessary funds much to the surprise of the government who they acted for.

The money that the MOD had in apparent abundance had been channelled directly into the budgets for national security, and had given the a very large military contract to BAE Systems, they would need to build the shipyard which was to be capable of producing BC:303 Prometheus-Class and BC:304 Daedalus-Class Vessels and other facilities for the production of other necessary technologies needed for interstellar operations.

BAE Shipyard's in Govan Scotland was selected for the location of the Interstellar ship production site and the current naval shipyards would be retrofitted for their needs, they would be using an unused covered dry dock to begin immediate construction of a redesigned Prometheus-Class ship, however it was underground where most of the work was ongoing constructing bays for larger ships such as Daedalus-Class Vessels and larger future ships.

Construction of the facility was sped up through the use of the new construction methods and the IOA had requested that they be allowed to inspect the new facilities in the pretence of ensuring that all precautions were being taken to prevent accidental disclosure or to be sure that the technology was being used as directed by the IOA.

Prime Minister Elliot Cavendish had agreed or at least been pressured to by his advisors.

The Galactic Shipyard facilities inspection was not an unusual request as the IOA often did such inspections and reviews but it was not looked on with much favour by many within the United Kingdom.

Melinda Chaio of the China, Carl Strom of the US and Henri Bellec of France had been sent to the new facility to inspect the security in place and to assure the IOA that the site would not compromise the secrecy of the Gate Program.

"Miss Chaio, Mr Strom and Mr Bellec" Said Ross Sampson who was a senior member of the BAE operations in Govan. "I am pleased that you can make it to our new facility."

They were stood outside an industrial building that led to the construction bays for their shipyard.

"This place does not seem to be secure." Strom said disdainfully "I do not see much security here, the IOA will not approve this."

"Perhaps." Ross said frowning at his hostility "You might not see the security but I assure you that no one without authority can access this facility."

"Let's get on with it then" Strom said "I do have other things to get one with, I will be frank I do not think your kindergarten of a country should be entrusted with such valued technology, and if I do not like what I can see I will have it removed from your possession."

"What are American colleague means is that we would be happy for you lead the way." Henri said glaring at his fellow IOA representative.

"Follow me then." Ross said and he walked towards an industrial building and with a large metal door, he placed a code within a keypad which opened up a portion of the metal wall revealing biometric readers, he placed his hand to the glass plate and looked into the optical sensor which read his eye.

When the door opened he led them into a room which contained lockers and benches and security officers.

"You will need to remove all of your electronic devices and place all jewellery, accessories and possessions into a locker, we do not allow any such things in our facility." Ross instructed placing his own into a locker which he locked with a fingerprint.

"You expect us to leave our belongings here in these things!" Strom asked outraged "I carry information of high important on my phone."

"If you wish to inspect this facility Mr Strom you will relinquish everything on your person." Ross said sternly "These are the security protocols that we have in this facility."

"I am a representative of the IOA and I should not have…" Strom began to say but was interrupted by Ross.

"I couldn't care if you were the Queen, if you wish to access this facility you will comply with our security or you will be escorted out." Ross said glaring at him "You may be the head of the IOA but here you are a foreign national who does not have any jurisdiction over any procedure we place here."

The IOA members complied but they did so under duress to fulfil their inspection and they removed all of their accessories and personal belongings and placed them in the locked and sealed them and were left in only their clothes and shoes.

They were then directed to another door which was guarded by security which was opened revealing a corridor a light distortion over the entrance.

"What is this?" Henri asked looking at the barrier with concern.

"Nothing to worry about I assure you, merely a security precaution which keeps this facility secure against spies and thieves." Ross assured them stepping through undaunted and showed that it did nothing. "The entire facility is shielded from all Asgard beaming technology so no unauthorised persons can access the construction bays stealthily, Ring transports are stored here for installation on vessels but they cannot be used as the control crystals are not to be installed until they are on our new ships."

The IOA stepped through the barrier but unlike when Ross had stepped through Melinda and Strom cried out in surprise when their pockets sparked and hissed and they pulled from their pockets two melted crystals.

"What is the meaning of this!" Melinda exclaimed holding up what remained of her device.

"I told you that you should only enter with your clothing, all devices and belongings were to be left outside, all outside technology is prohibited and I make no apologies for your loss of devices.

"'You have just destroyed important IOA data!" Strom accused.

"You did that yourself Mr Strom, this facility I told you this facility is protected against theft, you were the ones who tried to secrete those crystals into here, I don't know why you did it but the fact you did makes the fault lay with yourselves I gave you plenty of warnings." Ross told them "No technology can enter or leave this facility without being destroyed and we scan everyone when they pass through the entrances."

"That seems to be a satisfactory security precaution." Henri said appreciatively, "It seems like your Government is taking all necessary action to prevent unauthorised access."

"What other security have you placed here" Strom demanded looking around with suspicion.

"I am glad you asked" Ross said smiling nastily at the man "all communication and signals are blocked from entering the facility or getting through the shielding preventing information being streamed out of here using the internet or wireless connection, we have also created an entire network here that does not connect to the outside world, so this is entirely off the grid and not vulnerable to cyber-attacks."

"You are constructing the facility to construct ships, but my government has asked how you are appropriating the necessary martials such as naquadah and trinium, which of course cannot be sourced on Earth." Henri asked, "Will the United State be providing the materials?"

"Not likely" Strom muttered under his breath.

"For now they will be providing us with the elements that we require." Ross said ignoring the US representative "however we sent one of the British SG Teams on a mission off world to obtain us Goa'uld ships and the teams stole ten vessels from an old Goa'uld base manned by the Lucian Alliance. We have six Al'kesh and four Tel'tak vessels which we are in the process of adapting them for our current needs but in the future we hope to have the use Earth designed Imperial cargo ships but they will suit us fine for now, and we will be supplying the man power to mine the materials."

"What production rate do you believe this site will achieve?" Melinda asked "The Nevada production site can construct a Daedalus-Class in a little over a year at full production speed without complications and if all necessary materials are readily available."

"It is our hope that with the use of newer construction technologies we will be capable of beating that time considerably, but currently we only have one construction bay that can be utilised and that can be used only for our Prometheus-Class designs." Ross explained, "We hope to be able to produce one Daedalus-Class a year and two Prometheus-Class ships."

They entered continued into the facility stopping occasionally to view a laboratory or production rooms for different ship components before entering the above ground covered dock for the construction of the second generation of the Prometheus-Class ships.

In the bay was a beginnings of shell of a hull of a vessel, the bay was full of activity with hundreds of men and women working on the ship construction.

"You have said you will be constructing the Prometheus-Class vessel, why not devote all resources to the larger proven design used for the Daedalus?" Strom asked with disdain looking at the constructed shell with disgust "this seems to be a waste."

"The X303 was a prototype" Ross explained "This is a fully realised design made from the ground up with all technology built into it. This will be classified as a BC:303B and it is designed to act as a Battlecruiser and support ship for the Daedalus Class Battle Carrier."

"What will it be equipped with?" Henri asked "Will it be comparable to the other ships in the fleet?"

"Current designs allow for two Asgard Plasma beam weapons, although due to the vessels size they currently possess only a quarter of the power of the _Odysseys_." Ross explained without needing to refer to notes or schematics, "it will also be equipped with four pulse cannon turrets, ten railguns and will be have sixteen missile silos with a compliment of thirty-two missiles."

"Pulse Cannon technology is not utilised by other ships of the fleet." Melinda pointed out "We were not aware that the technology was viable."

"The design was perfected using data from the ion guns used formally by the Asgard, the pulse weapons used on the Ancient Lantean Aurora-class ships, the Goa'uld staff weapons and even the Travellers Particle cannons and we created a working design."

Ross led them to a conference room, which was equipped with a holographic display which he used to show them the different aspects of the 303B design.

"This technology is to be turned over to the United States." Strom demanded "We do not have access to this."

"The Peoples Republic of China also demands the sharing of this technology." Melinda added "The IOA formally makes this request from the United Kingdom."

Ross shook his head and smiled and stated very firmly "No."

"What do you mean no?" Strom asked "You have this technology at the discretion of the IOA and you are to share all developments with us for us to use."

"No." Ross said again "We paid the IOA and the United States a considerable amount of money for all current ship based technology, you have not supplied us with any schematics or currently researched weapons or designs that the US is developing in Area 51, therefore you cannot have this, unless you pay us."

"This is unacceptable!" Strom stated "You will be hearing directly from the IOA regarding your unwillingness to share your technology, technology that can be used to defend Earth."

"Mr Strom please stop talking." Ross said bored rolling his eyes "Your IOA has made it so that technology has to be purchased and therefore you created this situation. The Gate Alliance Treaty which the US, UK, France, Russian and China are all signatories stated very clearly that all technology is to be shared that was acquired through the Gate Program. It was your IOA who has all but voided this agreement and forced us to purchase what we needed to get this facility operational and therefore if you want our technology you will have to pay for it as it is proprietary and we have even patented it."

"This is ridiculous." Melinda said "You cannot do this."

"Actually we can." Ross said "Now this is an argument that is above my pay grade, you are here to inspect this facility and then make a report, I have better things to do than argue with the both of you over the double standards and uselessness your organisation infringes on this world."

"What else can you tell me about the ship?" Henri said trying to return the conversation to something more comfortable.

"The power is supplied by a Mark IV naquadah generator but we can install a Subspace Capacitor if we construct one." Ross said nodding and turning away from the two IOA representatives who he disliked. "We are using a new sublight ion drives which is again our own innovation, and we will use an Asgard hyperspace engines as our own drives are still being developed at Area 51, these propulsion technologies are complimented by an Anti-gravity wave generator which allows the ship to remain airborne in a controlled fashion without the need of using the sublight engines and cutting noise allowing for a stealthier way dock the ship without notice."

"Its hull is constructed from naquadah and trinium alloy mixed with two further elements that along with its advanced Electronic Countermeasure stealth technology is designed to lower the visibility of the ships on enemy sensors, allowing for stealthier missions without the need of cloaking technology which we currently do not possess, it will also have Asgard shielding but we have been able to improve on the base code using data from Atlantis."

"What about F302 assets?" Strom asked glaring at Ross for his previous words.

"Two hanger bays will be constructed on either side of the ship like on other ships of the fleet but a third bay is on top of the vessel in facing the bridge and behind the missile silos." Ross added pointing to the locations on the hologram, "the ship will have a compliment of eight F302's and will also have two of support ships like a Puddle Jumpers or Imperial Cargo ships."

"Would your government be happy to sell these vessels to other nations who have signed the gate treaty?" Strom asked "You seem to want to make a profit and this could be an avenue for you to take."

"We can but for now it is our intent to construct a number of our own vessels before we sell a ship to any nation." Ross admitted "Now would you like to continue the tour; we have begun to excavate the lower levels to make room for the new construction bays."

For the next hour and a half Ross showed the delegates around the remainder of the facility and for the remaining time Strom and Melinda remained mute, realising that they were not liked and were regarding with hostility.

The lower facilities were still being constructed and excavated but it was speedily being done due to beaming technology used to remove the materials and then the crystal memory was deleted without the need to have lorries remove the soil and rock. The facility was then sprayed with the liquid material sludge which sealed the room and made it structurally sound.

They were looking at a laboratory where a series of technicians were constructing different pieces of technology and it was not clear what was being constructed but from what Ross could tell the IOA representatives were happy with what they saw but were irritated that the UK government was not very cooperative and Strom especially disliked them.

With the tour over they made their way back to the reception hallway passing a number of rooms which has not been on the tour and all were marked with restricted access signs, Strom noticed the signs and drew attention to them.

"Samson!" Strom said loudly "What are behind these doors? You have not allowed us access to these rooms."

"They are not part of this tour Mr Strom, now if you would follow me." Ross asked gesturing behind him.

"No." Strom said and he turned and reached out for the door handle and ignored Ross's shout and as his hand touched the door the light on the door began to flash red and a siren sounded and from the door a blast energy emanated and it rendered everyone in the corridor unconscious.

When security teams arrived at the site they realised what had happened and carried them to the reception hall where they were revived and once it was explained what had happened then Strom demanded to be shown back to those rooms to inspect them believing they were hiding something.

Behind the rooms were storage units housing the facility computer systems and power distribution units and generators and once the IOA was finally happy that they were not hiding anything they left but told Ross that the facility was approved.

Two hours after the inspection a man was landing a cloaked Tel'tak in an aerial hanger bay located in Battersea Power Station where a secret organisations headquarters was located and from the ship stepped out Ross Samson of BAE Systems and two medics who were met by Greyson who wore combat boots trousers and a thick fleece.

"How did the inspection go?" Greyson asked expectantly.

"It went fine sir, the IOA passed the facility and as you predicted they eventually activated one of the stun devices on a door." He reported and looked sheepish "You should know that there may be some political backlash from them, I didn't hold back."

Greyson regarded him critically "We shall talk about that later; did they sign off on the facility?"

"Of course, Strom and Chaio were hostile to us as you believed, Strom did not like that we have technology that the US do not currently have." Ross said "They will petition for this to be shared."

Greyson nodded and looked to the two medics, "Did the implantation go well?"

"Yes Director, and they should remain undetected." Dr Helen Philips said smiling her Canadian accent dropping into her voice after pretending to be English all day "I doubt that they will even notice them."

"Good, get back to your station and see if you can't improve on their functionality, I have high hopes for your project and its other uses in the future." Greyson told them walking over to an open container and pulled out a thick coat with a fur trimmed hood and directed a number of his staff to load up his shuttle.

"Where are you going sir?"

"I need to inspect Project Titan, I received a communication from Killian, they have a problem with something and it was about time that I got to have a look at our operation." Greyson laughed "write up your reports and get them filed, when I am back I may call on you again."

A large work force walked past carrying all manner of tools and materials.

"It's about time that this facility was upgraded with today's technology, it hasn't been updated for a hundred years and things have just been added when needed." He added at their looks of surprise "this is our headquarters and that should be reflected in the building."

"Sir, do you need a pilot?" Ross asked.

Greyson waved him off "Don't worry, I may not have flown one in a while by these old Goa'uld cargo ships are easy to fly, I just find them distasteful, too much gold for me and they truly are an awful design.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Filo System – Tok'ra flagship**

_Queen Egeria _was the first vessel the Tok'ra had created once they had built their home world infrastructure, it was the latest design that they had it and rivalled the technology used by Anubis at the height of his power.

The ship was often seen by the spacefaring races of the Milky Way and a number of Jaffa and Alliance ships had mistaken them for a threat and had opened fire on the white ship and they had been unable to make a noticeable dent on the shields and the Tok'ra ship had not returned fire but given them a warning that future hostile contact will result in return fire and then the ship jumped to hyperspace.

The ship was one of four that the Tok'ra had built and they were seldom used as large motherships and capital vessels had not been their go to method of defence for thousands of years but with the peace brought about by the fall of the System Lords, Replicators and Ori they had been able to develop the ships and it was time for them to become less hidden.

They had not forgotten their old ways of isolationism and subterfuge and undercover and they still maintained their connections with informants across the galaxy and it was from these contacts that they had discovered that the leader of Lucian Alliance Couzan was amassing a huge contingent of Hat'ak Vessels and their plants in the Alliance ranks had reported that the targets included the Tok'ra Homeworld if it could be found, Hebridan, Earth and Dakara.

The Hat'ak vessels detected the ship that entered the system and began to power towards it, with such numbers it would not be possible to engage, so they allowed three cloaked cargo ships to leave the ship and then the jumped to hyperspace.

Three subspace messages were sent to each world that was a potential target, the message was simple, the Alliance will make a move soon, target unknown but fleet amassed.

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	19. Chapter 19

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Nineteen **

**Betrayal**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – USA – Washington DC**

Sitting in his office contemplating the next steps in a long drawn out plan was Carl Strom of head of the IOA and he prided himself on how important he was in Earths off world missions and the future of the planet.

He was waiting for his guests to arrive and they were late which irritated him, but punctuality was not their strong point and they were often unreliable in getting to meetings.

His intercom buzzed.

"Mr Strom, your guests have arrived." Said his receptionist.

"Send them in Francine." He told her.

He stood up and did up his suit buttons and watched as five people walked into his office, three men and two women.

"Strom" said the man who had walked in first.

"Rikard" Strom said indicating for him to take a seat "How goes the plan?"

"You have failed to provide us with the technology and schematics that we asked for." The man pointed out.

"If our new plan goes through correctly then you do not have to worry about that, you will have full access to Earths resources and technology." Strom pointed out quickly "I would add that we do not know what happened to your space station or the _Odyssey_ and _Hammond_."

Rikard was a high commander of the Lucian Alliance and had been stationed on Earth by Couzan to represent their interests and feed them intelligence.

"That is beside the point." Rikard said tersely, "You told us you could get us the technology we needed, the technology you have taken from Atlantis and the Asgard."

"In exchange you said that I would be rewarded and would become President of the United States." Strom said "I also want to become the leader of this world if your plan succeeds and this planet becomes part of the Alliance territory."

"That can still be arranged if you come through with what we need Mr Stom."

Strom looked at the visitors carefully, and knew he had to be cautious, if he wanted to remain in power when the Alliance took over Earth he would need their support and he had been covering up their activities on Earth from all of the agencies looking for them.

"Can we gain access to your shipyards?" Laynia asked, one of the women who had come along "We could steal what we need."

"No" Strom admitted "the Nevada shipyard can be breached but it is watched very carefully for Alliance infiltration."

"What of your newest shipyard, in this United Kingdom across your oceans." She asked "Can we access that one?"

"No" Strom said annoyed, he disliked that the UK had that shipyard up and running and they were nearly outside his scope of command and control and he did not know what influence he had over them, although when he had inspected the shipyard a month previously he had been impressed despite himself. "That site is the most secure facility currently on Earth, they have security higher than that of the SGC and Area 51 combined and for me to even get it took some incredible amount of pressure."

"So you mean to say you are useless" Paul said.

Strom didn't know what his true name was, but he was certain that he had taken that name since arriving on Earth.

"No, I still have unrestricted access of all US facilities and even the outpost in Antarctica." He said hastily "I am also covering up your operations on Earth."

They sat quietly for a moment as they eyed Strom up like a piece of meat they were about to consume, "In two days' time our fleet will lay claim to this planet, when they arrive we need your weapons platform offline and you will need to use the lockdown protocols to cripple your remaining ships."

"That should be easy enough, I will need to make contact with a few people in the deep space sensor monitoring stations and the SGC long distance sensor labs to make sure that your ships are not detected travelling here." Strom told them.

"What of O'Neill?" Delven asked, he was perhaps one of the most unstable of the group and hated every human of Earth and what they stood for, he had killed a number of people and also rapped many women while on Earth all of which Strom had kept hidden.

"For the next two days he will be at Homeworld Command, but he is taking some leave in a week, he will be an easy target when he goes to his cabin to fish." Strom spat, he disliked O'Neill he may have led Earth through the gate and defended the planet but he was a stopping all if his plans for running the USA.

"We could delay" Laynia pointed out "Our fleet is ready to attack a number of worlds but a week will not make much difference."

"If you delay it will give me a chance to make sure that the planet is easy for you to take control of, you will have to fight the worlds military, that is something that I have no control over" Strom said and from his top drawer he pulled out a crystal "on this crystal are the locations and intelligence of every nations military and their facilities, I would suggest a bombardment of this facilities and then attacking all navy assets with ships simultaneously."

Paul let over and took the crystal "Worry not how we will conquer Earth Mr Strom, that is our job, you only need to pave the way for us, I believe that is the correct term your people use."

"That is correct."

"Will the _Apollo_ and _Sun Tzu_ be in orbit?" Rikard asked, "those ships needed to be crippled for us to take over, all systems must be deactivated if we are to use the technology you build into them."

"The lockout codes you provided me with has been integrated into every system on the ships, all I need to do is send a signal and the ships will be useless, however it can only be used while in orbit of Earth." Strom advised, it had been him who had that subroutine programmed into the program to prevent the Alliance just stealing the ships while on a mission.

"Very well." Rikard said standing, "I will report this to Alliance Command and in seven days' time Earth will be Alliance territory and under your leadership Mr Strom."

"I cannot wait Rikard, this has been a fruitful partnership." Strom agreed shaking the man's hand and he was beaming to himself as he poured himself a celebratory Bourbon and sat basking in his own importance.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – Canada – Victoria**

Sitting in a communication relay station in Victoria, Vancouver was a technician who was employed to monitor the feeds from the tech they had installed on various key assets and file reports on all activity that saw.

The feeds were all recorded for the future disclosure but today was a not the day for that, instead the revelations were so important that the technician had immediately transmitted the feed to Station Six in Ottawa who had in turn beamed it directly to their headquarters in London.

The time scale had been changed and it was time for the action whether they were ready or not and they had a week to act before an entire fleet of ships arrived in orbit ready to conquer the planet that for all intent and purposes was a sitting duck and had been betrayed by one who was supposed to be protecting it.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – USA – Washington DC – Homeworld Command**

Homeworld Command offices had been relocated after the Lucian Alliance had attacked the Pentagon, they had set up shop in a large office complex within the city of Washington DC and were hiding their operations in plain sight of the general public.

The US Government has requisitioned the building for their temporary use, the building had been fitted with shields and sensors in order to prevent further attacks and it was also fitted with a surveillance jamming field which they had purchased from the British in order to keep everything which happened in the building secure.

The location was only a short term solution, the US government had not agreed on a new location for a Homeworld Command facility, and the IOA was stalling them regarding the budget from the international partners and they were not confident that the facility should be built in the US.

Homeworld Command operated solely for the defence of planet Earth, but it was still an American facility operated under the discretion of the Department of Defence, however it received the cooperation of all nations who were aware of the Stargate who contributed to world defence with whatever resources they could had. However international relations were at their lowest in the history of the Stargate program, each nation wanted more involvement but the worlds finances were slumping and the IOA was pressuring every nation for more and more.

It didn't help that the Lucian Alliance War was being fought and the planet did not have the necessary forces to defend its interests and they were losing territory, but the crux of the matter was money, politicians did not want to spend it and leaders of the world were squabbling over it and reduced the funding Homeworld Command had at its disposal which only made O'Neill's job of defending the planet harder.

The US were not immune to the financial difficulties and they had lost millions with two of their interstellar ships being MIA, but Jack had received a report from the geeks at Area 51, he refused to call it by its new name, Allied Stargate Technology Development Division or ASTDD, they had detected a disturbance in the background noise of subspace using the long range sensors and believed that the disturbance was caused by the generation of a hyperspace window from an Earth vessel.

Each hyperspace window and generator was unique to a race who had developed it, while Earths hyperdrives had been gifted to them by the Asgard, they had altered them to make them their own and it was enough for them to be unique and the Area 51 geeks believed that the weak disturbance was a lead on the missing _USS Odyssey_ and _USS George Hammond._

After the report had been passed to him, Jack had had a number of painstaking meetings with many so called experts in hyperdrive technology and subspace theorists all of who believed that this was a definite lead on the missing ships so Jack had called for a briefing between himself and the many departments that operated under his jurisdiction and even some which he operated under such as the IOA and DOD.

They had agreed that the _USS Apollo_ was to be sent out into space and to probe the background noise of subspace to see if was possible to triangulate a location for the disturbance, the ship had remained in the Milky Way since the relations between Atlantis and Earth had all but ceased due to the IOA interference, which was something that the President disagreed with, he himself disliked the IOA and felt that Sheppard was acting to protect Atlantis and the society he had created with the hopes of acquiring more technology.

"We don't know if it is the missing ships and if it is I would love to know why they have not made contact with us in the months that they have been missing but… "Jack said as he attempted to finish up the meeting when suddenly the power in the briefing room cut out.

"Did someone forget to pay the electric bill again?" Jack deadpanned looking around for any form of explanation but all he found was blank faces and an alarm began to sound throughout the building.

"Sir!" said Trent Kort a member of the support staff who ran into the briefing room "Power to the entire building had been cut off, communication systems have also been effected and a building wide lockdown had just initiated."

"What do you mean the building is undergoing a lockdown!" Jack said looking around, none of the doors had sealed.

"The main doors to this floor have sealed Sir, as have the doors to the staircases and elevators." Trent said quickly.

A new alarm began to sound and this time it came with an automated voice.

"_ALERT! BUILDING LOCKDOWN IN PROGRESS, EMERGENCY PROTOCOL TWENTY-SIX HAS BEEN INITIATED, PLEASE REMAIN CALM THE LOCAL AUTHORITY HAS BEEN NOTIFIED AND ARE ON ROUTE."_

"Protocol Twenty-Six?" Jack muttered to himself "but that's..."

"In the event of a contagion posing a threat to the facility and outside world the building will be locked down and all communication will be suspended until a time that the CDC can arrive and assess the threat." Trent finished for him "Sir, this lockdown was triggered without us detecting anything, the buildings monitor sensors did not detect any contagions."

"This has happened on Atlantis" Jack told him "This program was copied straight for the Atlantis security protocols and it is far superior to any system we have on Earth, it would only activate if it detected something."

Secretly Jack wondered if this was not another Alliance attack, the use of a bio weapon was not impossible but he had not been aware that they had that particular weapon, but the use of their own defences and building against them was in their arsenal of tricks and he questioned why his teams of support staff and not noticed anything on the many sensors that scanned the building for any threat.

The doors to the conference room slide shut preventing their leaving, and people began to panic and tried to break the class in the doors and windows to find a way out but they only hit an energy barrier which had erected itself around the room.

Knowing that panic would not help them Jack tried to calm people down, even though his own mind was working a mile a minute trying to find a solution.

"Everyone keep calm; we won't be able to know anymore until help arrives" Jack said loudly drawing the attention to him "We need to wait, we cannot leave this room, a shield has been erected over the entire room preventing us from breaking a window or wall to leave."

"General this is unacceptable" said Senator Johnson who was attending the briefing, "I demand…"

But Jack cut him off "I cannot stop this, so remain in your seats whilst I try to find out what is happening."

Jack turned to Trent and all but pushed him into a chair and forced him into a seat in front of his laptop, they tried to get it to turn on but it failed to work, the hard-line phone was disconnected and even their mobile phones were not getting any signal or Wi-Fi connection.

"Is this normal?" Jack asked "cutting us off so completely?"

"No sir, it should only have blocked some communications, but as commander of Earth defence you should be able to communicate out to the world." Trent explained in a low voice "This is not the normal procedure."

Jack frowned this was beginning to sound like the start of an attack and he had received the communication from the Tok'ra regarding the Alliance planned attacks on Earth, FJN and Hebridan and this looked like it might be the start. He had wanted to speak with the Tok'ra about their intelligence but they had not responded to their communication and had only transmitted the data they had and had not replied to any of their communications and their gate would not connect to the Tok'ra home world.

Suddenly there was a bright white light that lit up the room and the familiar sound of a transport beam which made Jack look around and he felt a slight hope that it was an old friend but he knew he was dead and thought it would mean an explanation for the lockdown.

To his surprise it was not a number of people in a self-contained bio suits or a group of doctors, there were seven people, military to Jacks mind, standing there looking at them. From what Jack could tell they did not look to be Alliance foot soldiers but their equipment and uniforms were unlike any he had ever seen but it had a distinct Earth aesthetic.

Their odd uniform looked like it had been pulled from a Star Wars movie; they wore a black tightfitting jump suit over which they wore white body armour that covered their torsos, arms and legs and it seemed to flex as they moved, they wore standard Earth combat boots in white, belts and holsters and even a grey military beret.

If Jack had thought their armour looked like it had come from a sci-fi movie then their weaponry was equally as odd, their weapons were white like the armour and by the looks of the design he thought they were energy weapons but they were holstered on their thighs, instead each man held a white handled asp in each hand.

"Who are you?" Jack asked lightly trying to think of a way out of the situation but they were armed and no one in the room had weapons, "I didn't have any mention of visiting Stormtroopers in my calendar."

"This facility has been placed in lockdown, please remain calm, everything will become clear in due course. You will all be processed and screened before we release this building from the lockdown and then you will be free to go."

Said one of the military men who seemed to be the leader, Jack noticed the accent immediately, it was an Earth accent.

"Do not try to resist, whilst we do not wish to harm you we will if you force us." The leader finished looking at them all carefully looking for any sign of a threat.

"I am General O'Neill of Homeworld Command and I demand that you tell me who you are." Jack said sternly, he recognised the man's accent and it irked him, and wondered if history was repeating itself in reverse.

The man nodded to him respectfully which only annoyed Jack more.

"As we speak General every facility, organisation and instillation that is associated with the Stargate and our off-world interests has been place under containment. This includes the SGC, Area 51, the Ancient Outpost in Antarctica, and even the docks for the production of all Earths interstellar warships."

"But…" Jack tried to say but the man continued to speak over him and he had the attention of every person in the room.

"The Sun Tzu and the Apollo which are currently in Earth's orbit have been neutralised, but you should not worry no harm has come to its crew or even the ships themselves they have merely been lockdown in similar way to what we have done here today."

"And how did you do that!" Jack demanded, if the ships could so easily be rendered inert it was a major security issue, the current one notwithstanding.

"Oh we merely exploited a weakness in the ships systems that was placed there by the IOA, something which we became aware of in the last few days due to our intelligence analysists, and it is because of the actions of the IOA that we have acted as we have across the entire world, Earth is being betrayed and that betrayal threatens the lives of all who call this planet home and we are charged with protecting those that fall under our protectorate."

"Which Nation do you represent? Your actions are an act of war!" Exclaimed Senator Johnson "You have invaded the United State of America! We will strike back with the full force of our military power."

The officer chuckled "I do not represent a Nation, I represent an organisation that has been forced to reveal itself in order to bring to light an international conspiracy, once our mission is completed control will be returned immediately."

"So you say." Jack said looking at him critically "Your accent its British, did you government sanction this? Is this retaliation for the loss of the Elizabeth?" he remembered all of the frustrating conversations he had with members what used to be an ally with whom America shared a special relationship.

"My government in my home country is not aware of my organisations existence and are therefore not aware of are actions here today. I should point out that even the British facilities have been placed under containment in the same manner of which we have contained your offices here." He elaborated trying to garner Jacks trust, "The organisation that I work for does not operate in the name of the British Government or on their behalf, we are outside their oversight and we operate across a number of nations."

Jack was about to probe for more information but didn't as two of the attending visitors had moved quickly and raised their hands to the military men and there was a bright light generated from their hands.

Two bolts of light shot from their hands and hit two of the soldiers directly in the chest, but the energy was discharged over the armour and rendered inert, the other soldiers leaped into action and used their own weapons against them, the tips of the white asps glowed briefly blue and they only touched them to the men and they fell to the floor unconscious.

Each of the unconscious men had a device attached to their fingers and it was a device Jack was sure he had seen before but couldn't place it in his memory.

The leader of the men looked at them with keen interest, "Those weapons are of Goa'uld design, test them, they may be Alliance operatives or brainwashed people of Earth."

One of his men pulled out a small handheld device that looked very similar to the life sign detectors found by the Atlantis Expedition, he used it to seemingly scan the unconscious visitors on the floor and even tested their blood and hair using the device.

"Bio scans show that both have trace amounts of Naquadah in their blood allowing them to use the weapon, they are not Goa'uld but at least one of them is of non-terrestrial origins, scans reveal isotopes from drinking water that does not match any analysis of Earth sources, also he doesn't have the Nuclear Marker we have in our bodies due to our experiments with nuclear materials. The other is from Earth but scans reveal signs of neuron damage so it would be a good bet he had undergone Alliance mind programming."

The leader walked over and pulled out two metal wristbands from one of his pockets and placed them on their wrists and they fused together like a cuff.

"What are those?" Jack asked looking at the devices that glowed green.

"The cuffs bind together and excrete a sedative into their skin and keep them unconscious so that they can be transported away." The man explained "our weapons are set to stun as we do not want casualties but that can change."

The officer in charge tapped the wrist mounted technology he had and began to talk as though he was using a radio.

"Control this is GreyHawk-One…Objective completed…We have O'Neill and he is going to need answers…two... subdued and contained, ready to beam to holding…two to beam to holding… Understood."

"Problem?" Jack asked his best to remain cool tempered but the lack of full answers was starting to irritate him.

"Not at all" The officer admitted and the unconscious men glowed bright white and were beamed away to what Jack assumed was a ship. "Now that we have control of all facilities relating to the Stargate we are now apprehending all members of the IOA and they are being taken into custody, some will take longer than others as we are doing this covertly and some are in public and it is imperative that we do this now and secretly."

"Why are you doing this, what have they done that has made you respond in such a way?" Jack asked "And who exactly are you anyway?"

"That will all be explained in time General." The officer said smiling annoyingly "The name of the organisation that I work for will not mean anything to you General as we have operated in secret for so long. But I am Officer Myers and I work for the Torchwood Institute."

"Never heard of it" Jack said.

"Not surprising, we like to keep low profile." Myers said, "Our mission today was spurred by what we have discovered about the IOA and we have had them under deep surveillance for some time and we finally have the necessary evidence to remove them from power and to reveal ourselves to the world."

"Evidence of what?" Jack asked.

"What would you say General, if I told you that the IOA is behind the Lucian Alliance rise to dominance, the attacks on this planet, and the disclosure of classified information and technology."

"You have proof?" Jack asked not entirely surprised having never liked the IOA and had definitely never trusted them but it shocked him that it had gone unnoticed.

"We have the evidence" Myers nodded "The attack on _HMS Elizabeth II_ was masterminded by our own IOA representative unknowingly, The IOA tried to provide the Alliance with advanced technology like shields and weapons but the _Hammond_ and _Odyssey_ stopped that before they disappeared. The Allaince has infiltrated this planet with the help of the IOA and they have covered up after them, we have enough evidence to have them all convicted of treason and to round up the Alliance members of Earth."

Jack closed his eyes in realisation, all of the times that the Alliance seemed to know what they were doing or had information they couldn't possibly have was because of the IOA. The Icarus base, the ambushes on their ships, the odd rate of success the Alliance had at finding worlds protected by Earth or finding their key off world facilities.

"Do you know where Carter and Mitchell are?" Jack asked hopefully "You know they stopped an IOA plot, so do you know where they are?"

"Not my knowledge, and we lost two of our own operatives on those ships but have lost all contact with them. He admitted sadly "We do not believe that they are dead or the ships destroyed, the entire fleet of Alliance ships was destroyed in a battle, and there was no trace of wreckage of either ship but plenty of theirs and even the Alliance does not know what happened in that attack."

"Fine, so what is it that you want?" Jack asked, "You did not just come here for tea."

The officer laughed lightly "No, General you should know that you will need to undergo a through another screening process, the Institute has developed our own methods of detecting sleeper agents, some of which you have seen today."

"Your own technology?" Jack questioned wondering how an Earth organisation had developed the technology ahead of Area 51 which provided the R&amp;D for many nations in alien technology, and he wondered if they were actually behind the British's advancements in technology that was being seen on the production of the new Prometheus-class design.

"Of course" he replied and his wrist device beeped and he frowned and held his ear and listened to something before he smiled at Jack. "Our operation is complete; You can now meet with the big boss."

"Well that would be great, I have questions" Jack said sarcastically.

The officer walked over and stood next to him and fiddled with the device on his wrist again which lit up "Please place your hand on this device General,"

Jack reached out and put his hand onto the device which he noticed looked far superior to other technology used by the SGC.

"Control two to beam." The officer said into the device, which glowed blue and then they were enveloped in white light.

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	20. Chapter 20

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Twenty**

**Torchwood**

As the light dimmed Jack was able to get his first look of his surroundings and what he saw shocked him considerably.

He was on the bridge of a ship unlike any that he had seen, it seemed so alien compared to those that he had seen before, but he could draw similarities to technology found on Atlantis and some of the designs he had seen for planned new technology on Earth, however some of it seemed to have come direct from a production line for the Daedalus-Class.

The most overwhelming thing that he noticed was that this ship came from the most sophisticated and advanced leap in ship construction operation since the Daedalus-Class or perhaps even the conception of the X303 prototype, _Prometheus_.

Jack was always interested in new designs for Earth vessels and took a look at all proposed future projects, the next generation designs currently held by the US did not come close to what he was seeing now in front of him, it looked more like a concept idea that McKay and Carter had created between them for the ultimate design.

The bridge was designed with the practicalities of Earth designed technology and merged it with the efficiency and sophistication of the Ancient Lantean aesthetics and interfaces to create an entirely new design and variant of technology and it was impressive and a small part of Jack could not wait to see what else this ship had to offer.

This Institute had created a marvel of technology without the help of the nations of Earth and it was incredible that they had done this just to be outside the IOA's control.

The crew wore a form of dress uniform that was not unlike the foot soldiers who has stormed his office; they wore grey trousers, boots, white jacket, and a grey beret tucked into the jacket epaulet.

"General Jack O'Neill" said a firm voice as the door to the bridge opened.

Jack turned and saw a man, no older than thirty years old, he was fit and good looking but there was steel in his eyes that Jack recognised from soldiers who had seen war.

"And who are you?" Jack asked but he noticed that the entire bridge had acknowledged this man with respect but he didn't look to be military, but the man was obviously the commander of the ship.

"Daniel Greyson, Director of the Torchwood Institute and for today the current commander of the ship _Ares_." He said introducing himself "It is my organisation that has just arrested and contained all members of the IOA and placed all facilities that fell under their purview into lockdown."

"I would like to know how you think this will end." Jack asked with great interest "You have just arrested important and powerful people using technology acquired through the Stargate program. That violates the International Alliance on the development of technology developed through the use of the Stargate."

"Perhaps" Greyson said smirking "The IOA conspiracy however will overshadow my organisations involvement and the developments that we have made over the years."

"And what is your organisation exactly?" Jack asked "Your officer didn't elaborate much."

Greyson nodded and gestured for Jack to follow and they left the bridge of the ship.

"A bit of history then. The Torchwood Institute was founded in 1879 by Queen Victoria after a Goa'uld tried to make her its host, its plan was to rule over the planet using the British Empire as their domain." He explained walking him through corridors that looked much like that of the _Daedalus _but more streamlined and without all the access panels and pipes and wires, "The Goa'uld was killed before the queen could be taken as the new host; she then created an Institute to protect the Empire from any alien threat. Over the years the Institute evolved as the planet did not have the means to defend itself so we began to develop new methods of protecting Earth using technology we discovered throughout the Empire left behind by other races and we began to experiment and understand more. I believe that you are aware of the Goa'uld named Satesh?"

"You mean Seth? Yeah we kicked his sorry arse years ago." Jack said thinking back to that particular mission, but it only made him think of his missing friends.

"What you might not know is that Satesh created a cult in England at the end of the eighteenth century, it was Torchwood who destroyed that cult and it was only by luck that he was not killed." Greyson explained "Torchwood has operated in secret, and it is fortunate that we did as it is possible that the IOA would have tried to have us under their control and if we were we wouldn't have seen what they were doing."

"So you developed your tech over all these years.?" Jack asked looking as they walked the corridors and wondered how they had done it.

"In the time that your government developed the technology to build _Prometheus_ and the Daedalus-Class cruisers, the F-302's and other weapons and devices, Torchwood has been watching and learning and have developed our technologies further. You should know that the _Elizabeth II_ was sent to an ambush location by the IOA so that the Alliance could acquire it and the data in the terminals they installed so that the Alliance could gain data that was transferred to them from the Atlantis Database."

"Then I take it she survived?" Jack asked shrewdly, there was only one way Greyson could know that, "We believed she was destroyed."

"Yes she survived, only because of her captain and crew." Greyson acknowledged "The captain of the _Elizabeth II_ was actually a Torchwood Officer, after dropping out at the co-ordinates the IOA provided and finding themselves surrounded he realised that the IOA had sent them to an ambush."

"What about the wreckage?" Jack asked "We found the remains of the ship."

"The captain quickly orchestrated the wreckage that you discovered, he dragged the wreckage of the _Korelev_ to the location so that it would be found when you sent a ship to investigate. Since that day we have been busy getting ready for this very day. The IOA is responsible for the _Odyssey_ and _Hammond_ being lost, they have been dealing with the Alliance, they have shared schematics, technology and planet locations. The Icarus Project was only compromised because of the IOA."

"So what is your plan?" Jack asked "You must have a plan after arresting the IOA members."

"Of course, as we speak my operatives are arriving at the offices of each of the Gate Alliance Treaty member's leader and they should be with us in just a moment."

"And what do you want to happen?"

Greyson looked at Jack surprised "I want to change the path of this Planet and increase its development, but more than anything I want to IOA gone and for us to take this fight to the Alliance without us being hamstringed."

Jack considered what the man said and wondered at him, his organisation could be seen to have staged a revolution but he wondered if what their actions would be accepted as they mostly certainly illegal.

"So just out of interest, we detected an energy spike in London nearly a year ago, was that you guys?"

Greyson chuckled looking slightly abashed "Of course it was us, Torchwood headquarters is located in the derelict Battersea Power station, our facilities are under the building and it is why the site has never been redeveloped. You may wonder why I have told you that but after today Torchwood will no longer be a secret and will no longer hide ourselves."

"You do realise there will be fallout from your actions?" Jack pointed out, "The many nations below us will not look kindly on you."

"They can try but since our actions will have stopped this planet losing its technological supremacy to a bunch of thieves and mercenaries I am not worried. In fact, the only country that will suffer will be your own, I think your days of dictating Earth defence may be at an end General and in only a few more days an entire fleet of Alliance ships will arrive to attack Earth."

Jack shot the man a confused look.

"You should thank the IOA, they planned to have you killed when you were on leave and that gave us the necessary time." Greyson added matter of factly.

**Milky Way Galaxy – 100 light years outside the Kawawn system – two years previous.**

The Elizabeth II was in hyperspace traveling towards Earth with their databanks full of data from Atlantis and they also had a patient on board who had been attacked by a member of the crew of the ship who had been mysteriously killed by the patient.

They were an hour away from Earth when they received a signal from subspace.

General Terrance Copping was sitting in the command chair on the Elizabeth II and he asked his communications officer, David Brand to patch through the message.

"_This is Brigadier General Cameron Mitchell of the USS Odyssey, my ships life supports systems have malfunctioned, Stargate Command has requested that you assist us, authentication code SG5566/HN55/KKL"_

The signal also came with coordinates and it was four hours away at top speed.

"Is that it?" Copping asked.

"Yes sir." Brand responded, "no further data was transferred."

"Drop us out and plot a new course" Copping ordered "We need to assist General Mitchell and the Odyssey."

The ship dropped out of hyperspace within a star system, and almost immediately jumped back to hyperspace travelling at its top speeds to the coordinates that had been transferred to them in the subspace message.

Copping pressed the intercom button on his chair patching himself through to the ship communication systems, "I want all maintenance teams ready for immediate beaming to our sister ship to help with the repairs, we will be dropping out…."

The ships dropped out of hyperspace and was immediately bombarded with shots from a great number of vessels that they began to detect around them.

"SHIELDS UP!" Copping roared "target all Hat'ak vessels with the forward beam weapon batteries! All railgun fire is to be concentrated on the other ships!"

"Sir the weapons have damaged the hull." Brand reported "I am detecting depressurisation on two decks"

"Seal off those decks and beam any personnel out of them and straight to the med bay." Copping ordered "what is out there?"

"Sensors show six Ha'tak vessels, fourteen Al'kesh and a number of Tel'taks, and a very large number of gliders." Captain Holloway reported reading his screen, they are all concentrating their fire on the ship and shields are down to 78?"

The Elizabeth II powered her sub light engines and began military manoeuvres and the entire time beams of bright white plasma shot out of the ships batteries and they impacted the Ha'tak shields which blossomed on the first impact and on the second collapsed the weapons cut through the hull and it took two more to entire destroy the ship.

The gliders were swarming the ship but they were held off by the railguns that were firing rapidly.

"Ready the missile silos!" Copping ordered "We have thirty-two missiles, get them loaded and ready for deployment and wait for my mark."

The ship shook violently from the bombardment.

"Sir the ships are all converging on us!" Holloway said urgently "Five of the Ha'taks are heading straight for us."

"Let them come!" Copping told them "I want all power diverted from rail guns straight into the Asgard weapons."

It took a moment but the power was transferred and the weapons powered up.

"I want a direct powerful volley of the weapons sent at each enemy ship now!" Copping ordered "Brand take us up over them top of them and then back around for a second volley of shots."

Five directed beams of plasma shot out from the ships weapon batteries and each hit their mark but they were straining the shields to the maximum output and they were being depleted quickly, the ship accelerated up over the golden pyramid shaped ships and rotated turning upside down before bearing back round by going back on itself coming out on top of the enemy vessels which began to disperse but not before the ship fired its second volley of plasma beams which crippled the ships.

The Al'kesh and Tel'taks continued their bombardment on the ship and with the explosions caused by the exploding Ha'tak vessels they had been reduced to only fifty percent.

"Fire missiles." Copping ordered "I want all of those ships neutralised."

The remaining ships were destroyed with relative ease but once the battle was done the _Elizabeth II_ was left worse for wear

"Sir, the screens are clear of all further enemy contacts. But one of those Ha'tak vessels is the source of the subspace communication we received." Lieutenant Brans said "Sir we were led directly into a trap."

"I know." Copping said frowning looking out at the graveyard out of the observation window. "Keep us here and patrol this system, I need to report to Earth."

He left the bridge and made directly for crew quarters and found his way to the room where Gordon Matthews was being held, and he opened the door.

Gordon sat reading a book and when the door opened he stood to attention.

"General, is the battle over?" he asked looking concerned.

"Yes" Copping said and he pulled out a device from his pocket and mounted it on his hand "But right now I need to speak to Frederick Hartman."

He raised the device up and held it in front of Gordons face and a bright light was expelled which he directed straight into his eyes and an odd look passed over his face for a moment before he fell unconscious and Copping caught him.

A minute later Gordon woke up and looked around.

"General Copping, why am I on this ship?" he asked "Has my assignment been stopped?"

"No Sir" the general said respectfully, "What is the last thing you remember? I am not sure how the imprint works."

"I…" the boy began to say but stopped and closed his eyes "I was attacked, someone tried to kill me and the human defence mechanism overpowered the imprint and I killed my assailant, I remember my work on Atlantis but I won't remember the rest until I sleep and it is processed."

Copping looked down at the device in his hand and pocketed it quickly, the technology unsettled him, they had developed the technology from a device SG1 had discovered and with a piece of Goa'uld technology that had taken a special forces trained man, Frederick Hartman and used the technology to remove all sense of self and programmed him to be Gordon Mathews who was a researcher, they had used Hartman's own twin brother as the template, Mathew Hartman was an actual researcher working back in the UK and was a leading mind for the organisation.

"How is my brother?" he asked "He was not happy with my assignment."

"Mathew is fine, and had leading the development of new technology for ships in Station five and six in Canada." Copping told him "Why did the imprint fail, Sheppard was not happy with your actions, he recognised military training."

Frederick snorted "He would, you know I met him once in Afghanistan, he is a very good commander and an excellent soldier. You have wiped the imprint from my mind, I trust there was a reason General" he added with a hint of warning.

Copping noticed the tone and nodded, "We received a communication from who we believed to be General Mitchell aboard the _Odyssey_ and instead of our ship in distress we arrived in the middle of an Alliance ambush."

"What was your mission to Atlantis?" Frederick probed "I don't not have those memories."

"The IOA equipped the F302 bays with data terminals and had us make copies of large portions of Atlantis database in order to deliver it to Earth and Area 51." Copping told him, it didn't sit right with him at all, "You should also know that the assailant who attacked you came from my crew and he was placed here by orders of the IOA."

"Interesting" Frederick replied and he began to pace, "This is not right, send teams over to the enemy ships, access the data terminals and find out everything you can, how they got the authentication codes raised concerns in my mind, especially as the one that the used comes of General Landry and the Alliance should not have known it."

"I can do that." Copping acknowledge, "What are you thinking?"

The young man who had been a key researcher on Atlantis but in truth was a highly trained officer of Torchwood Institute raised a brow "I think that this ambush was orchestrated with the help of people from Earth and I want to know who."

Teams had been beamed over to what remained of the Alliance ships and they had accessed the ships databanks and what they discovered startled the entire crew of the _Elizabeth II_, they had been sent to Atlantis to get the information from its database and it was to be delivered to the Alliance with a ship in payment for something they were not yet certain of.

What they had discovered however was a great conspiracy on Earth and it was controlled by key members of the IOA all of who were in league with the Alliance who had made deals for technology and information in exchange for money, gold and power.

Frederick had opened up a secure channel direct to Torchwood Headquarters in London and explained what they had found and they made a plan, a plan that would give the Institute time to set up everything they needed for the future to be ready to reveal the IOA's betrayal.

The first thing they had done was travel to P3Y-229 the sight of the first engagement between the forces of Earth and the Ori and it was the site of the wreckage of the _Korolev_ and they used a spare bank of data terminals to beam the wreckage onto the ship and stored in the databanks and travelled back to the ambush site.

The wreckage was then beamed out into space and made to look like the wreckage of the _Elizabeth II_ and once their task was complete they left the system for a planet that was not far from Earth but one that had not been explored due to it being an ice planet where they began to construct a base of operations using the technology that had access to and Torchwood was helping with other things they needed using a number of Goa'uld cargo ships.

They called the planet Olympiad and it was under the snowy terrain and tundra that the institute built three shipyards and it was in Dry Dock One that they built Earth's next class of warship codenamed Project Titan but the ships actual name was the _Ares_, but also began to build the newly redesigned Prometheus-Class ship which was designed to be a support and supply vessel, and also a dock for Daedalus-Class ships.

Torchwood had used the advanced technologies at their disposal to develop and cybernetic technology, they placed cybernetic implants into members of the IOA eyes and a liquid chip technology into their brains which recorded telemetry, smell, video and audio all of which could be reviewed by Torchwood, and it was from this available data that they found out how far the conspiracy went.

After two years the Institute had built the _HMS Ares_ the BC:305, _HMS Majestic_ a Mark III BC:304 and HMS _Prometheus II_ which was a BC:303B the first of this redesigned class of ship were all completed and had begun their shakedown cruises all without any notice from Earth or other races.

There had been a number of close calls, three of the Institutes cargo ships were very old and when they had entered the atmosphere they had lost control of navigation and almost burnt up but instead had crash landed which resulted in fireballs over Earth which had been noticed and investigated by the SGC.

The second instance had been when they were testing a new power system and its protective casing had not been sufficient and it had let out an energy signature which sensors orbiting the Earth had detected which resulted in a second team of Area 51 techs investigating the site which happened to be above Torchwood Headquarters.

When the analysist in the relay station in Victoria, Canada, has seen that the IOA had betrayed them so obviously and with a planned attack on Earth imminent Director Greyson activated Midian Protocol which meant it was time for Torchwood to activate its secret plan to usurp control from the IOA and to reveal themselves.

Over the two years the Institute themselves had placed their own agents within the many facilities that were related to the Stargate all of which were there only for the moment when the Midian Protocol was activated, all members of the Institute that had been installed into the facilities had true back stories and their connections to each other had been hidden and obscured.

When the signal was received at the Olympiad shipyards the four vessels exited the atmosphere and once clear of the planets orbit jumped to hyperspace. The officers who had been planted in the facilities which monitored long range sensor readings obscured the ships signature from the computer and technicians so when they arrived in the Sol system they went unnoticed, even the _Apollo_ and _Sun Tzu_ didn't detect them as they entered within the rings of Jupitar and they activated their cloaks and accelerated towards the planet.

Once in position a signal was sent to Torchwood Stations around the world and they signalled all operatives that it was time, within all the facilities they had infiltrated began the process of locking them down and deactivating security protocols and removed the beaming jamming fields allowing for teams to be beamed down from the ships in orbit.

Midian Protocol had been swift but the IOA downfall was only just beginning and that didn't include the fallout from their arrest and the realisation that the planet had almost been sold to pirates.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Ares - Earth orbit **

After O'Neill had been beamed aboard the _Ares_ he had been shown to a large meeting room aboard the ship, it probably had once been a large cargo hold but had been converted for a new function, a very large table had been installed with chairs for a large number of people.

Slowly the leaders of the many nations of Planet Earth where beamed aboard and after undergoing the Institutes screening process for Alliance brainwashing and Alliance plants they were escorted into the room.

Fortunately, none of the world leaders had been brainwashed and were acting under their own freewill and eventually all of the leaders of the Nations that knew of the Stargate were seated and were waiting impatiently for Director Greyson to arrive back in the room.

While they waited O'Neill had been bombarded with questions as to what had been happening, no one really knew anything and were all surprised by what had happened, Prime minister Elliot Cavendish had been under a lot of heated looks and sharp words due to Torchwood's existence and interference going unnoticed by the British Government, but other nations pointed out that the forces than had infiltrated their facilities and brought them to the ship had been of many nations, Australians, Canadians, Indians, Jamaican, Egyptian and a number of them had been from various African countries and even a number of Chinese.

Jack had recognised the pattern almost immediately, they had all at one time been a part of the British Empire and he guessed that Torchwood operated across all of those countries as they had been founded by Queen Victoria who had ruled over all of those nations in her lifetime.

When Director Greyson arrived he was still dressed in the formal dress uniforms of the crew of the _Ares_ and he gave of an aura of confidence as he walked in and took a seat at the head of the table and seemed unfazed by the attention that was now on him.

"Please, can we all be seated?" he said in a low voice, he didn't raise his voice or direct them firmly, it was subtler than that, his authority was clear and everyone obeyed whether they realised it or not.

Above the table was a large circular metal dish from which hung a compound blue sphere and it was obviously advanced technology not that Jack recognised it.

"I feel that I should warn you that all of the events that happen in the room are being recorded, they may very well become part of the public record so in the interest of honesty I tell you this now. I do not care for your political motivations or even what your political stances is. We are here to discuss the future of Planet Earth and how the nations of our world defend it from hostile threats."

"I think I should first tell you more about my organisation, and then I will tell you why we have arrested and detained all members of the IOA and why as we speak we are rounding up members of the Lucian Alliance who have infiltrated Earth." Greyson finished and smiled slightly.

He explained the history of the Torchwood Institute, explaining how it was founded and how its influence had spread across the old British Empire and how it had endured the downfall of the empire but had remained active as its mandate to protect those who fell under its protection still remained.

The leaders of the countries from which Torchwood operated were shocked but Greyson pointed out that they had been interacting for years but they had not known.

Greyson explained how it had been the almost loss of the Elizabeth II aboard of which had been some of their own officers that had sparked their investigation into the IOA and how they had discovered the unsettling truth.

"When we realised just how far this conspiracy went we had no choice than to investigate further, we knew that if we were ever to remove them from the power that had acquired over the years, power which each nation here had granted them then we would need to give your proof." Greyson said and he pointed a remote at the blue sphere above them "what I am about to show you is meetings between members of the IOA speaking about how they will betray Earth, others will be them meeting with the Alliance, others will be them interfering and covering up all manner of things, all of which benefit themselves and the Alliance, none of which help us."

The footage lasted two hours and while it went on not a single leader of the world spoke, once the last clip, of Strom talking to the Alliance about the impending attack had finished all hell broke loose and there was an uproar of voices all of which spoke over each other and Greyson allowed it to happen.

After an hour of arguing between themselves Greyson intervened again.

"I understand this has come as a shock to you all, especially given that many of you have allowed them to gain so much power and have given them almost unfretted access to all operations and they have stolen much of the money you have channelled into their organisation." He said calmly not seemingly noticing the hostile looks he received "Now is not the time for us to be divided, as you saw from this footage an attack on Earth is imminent."

"How do we know that this footage is not a fabrication?" asked the president of France, "This could all be an elaborate hoax."

"I assure you Mr President that this is no hoax, the technology that was used to record this footage comes from my organisation and records in real time. Here is an example of how the technology works."

The screen above them activated again and this time showed a first person view of Greyson arriving on the bridge of the _Ares_ and meeting General O'Neill, it was complete with audio, Jack confirmed that the events were true and it took some time for the leaders of the world to accept the footage as real.

"So what is it that you want?" asked a number of the leaders.

"My organisation was created to protect those that fall under our protection, it is your job as leaders of your various nations to protect your own people but their needs to be co-operation between you all to do this."

"What is your proposal?" Jack asked "a new agreement?"

"Exactly" Greyson agreed but he smiled ruefully "Except this new agreement will be adhered to more than the last Gate Alliance treaty."

What Greyson had created was an outline of a Stargate Alliance Charter.

The Charter stipulated that no one nation could control the Stargate or be responsible for Earth defences. A number of countries that were referred to as superpowers of the world were charged with overall defence of the planet. Those nations were China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States, all current advances made from the Stargate were to be shared between these nations unequivocally and with immediate effect.

However, all nations were to be given access over the next twenty years as many of them were involved with the international expedition on Atlantis and they were to receive all new data in new fields of science to be researched.

It has been at the insistence of the UK, French and Russians pushed for the clause that no Sovereign State could control the Stargate which meant that Stargate Command would need to be removed for the base under Cheyanne Mountain. President Heyes had tried to fight this proposal but it had become popular around the table he complied with the move to be agreed on later.

Greyson also outlined the plan for a new Homeworld Command to be that would no act under the direct orders of the president of the United States but would be transferred to the joint command of the World Council which was the name being used for the leaders of the nations who were charged with protecting the planet, the facility would again not be allowed to operate on any sovereign soil and would need to be an international site, the concession was made that each nation on the World Council would have a small office in each of their capitals was staff but only to help with the running of the council and its operations.

Also part of the Charter was the immediate transfer of purview of all of Earths current vessels to be transferred to the new Homeworld Command operated under the world council. This stipulation also included Stargate Command (the current facility and the planned facility), Antarctic Weapons Platform, all galactic shipyards, off world instillations and mining operation, including the Alpha and Beta sites.

"What about you and your organisation!" the Chinese president pointed out "You have advanced technology and facilities they too will be transferred."

There was a great amount of agreement from the various world leaders and Jack couldn't help but think that Greyson had asked for this.

"No." Greyson said unequivocally, "Torchwood has operated far longer than the Stargate Program and the technology we have has been acquired throughout many years, some before the gate was even found in Giza."

"Your entire organisation should be absorbed into the Allied Stargate Technology Development Division, including your off world shipyards and facilities across the world." The Chinese president pressed "If you do not do this then how do you expect us to follow."

"I should point out to you Mr President that you are not actually losing anything, in fact I am giving you more than you currently have." Greyson said calmly "If anything only President Hayes is really losing anything, you have one ship, a ship you cannot currently maintain or arm and one that is really operated by the US but with your military."

"This is an outrage!" the President exclaimed "You kidnap us and then make such demands."

"I demand only that you recognise that things must change, if my organisation had not acted when we did then in a number of days we would be facing an attack that we would not see coming and one that we would be defenceless against." Greyson explain in the same low voice he had used through the meeting "If you wish to cling to your delusions that this is a time to grab as much power as you can then you are mistaken."

"However to sweeten the deal I will freely give over the designs and schematics of the Ares-Class ship, one of which we are currently aboard and the _Ares_, _Elizabeth II_, _Prometheus II_ and _Majestic_ will be transferred to the Homeworld Command, I will also point out that the Elizabeth II is actually owned by the British Government, but the other ships were built and are owned by my organisation and I will hand them over."

"I will point out to you that this ship is actually only a prototype but the production model will be much better" Greyson added "I will also give the World Council access to the Olympiad shipyards for twenty-five years and after that time a new agreement can be made regarding their use."

Jack was shocked by his admission that the Ares was only a prototype as he thought it was already one of the most advanced ships he had come across perhaps third only to an Ancient Lantean Aurora class, and the Asgard O'Neill class but his concessions were appealing.

Greyson told them that Torchwood would begin to build its infrastructure aboveground and that it would retain its own jurisdiction around the world in any country that it operated, but would cooperate with Homeworld command regarding those countries and would appoint a permanent liaison to Homeworld command to consult on all matters of Earth Defence.

As a further gesture of good will and to ease everyone into the proposed changes he brought up a hologram of a mobile command platform which was already under construction on Olympiad, it was to work in international airspace under the direction of Homeworld command and would be free so no nation had to pay for it, instead they would receive a platform from which the Earth could be defended.

The platform itself was basically a ship that had been inspired by something a Torchwood employee had found in a comic and from City-ship technology. The platform would stay aloft in the upper atmosphere of Earth using a new propulsion drive that was a hybrid of a stardrive technology and an anti-gravity pulsar, it was to be fitted with shields and weapons although none could be used against a planetary target. The platform could exit the planet's atmosphere but lacked hyperdrive capabilities limiting it to the sol system and Earth, and it was to be powered by a subspace capacitor and could also have a zpm integrated into the vessel.

The ship was designed to resemble the point of origin symbol for Earth, the circle of the symbol was built containing towers and tall structures which contained offices, conference rooms, the World Council Chambers, International Senate and would also house Earth's Control Chair for the Weapons platform. The long triangular parts of the symbol were runways for the F302's that would be placed on the ship but also be a place for other vessels to land for people transferring to the ship.

The ship was proposed name was _Valliant_.

The last stipulation in the charter was for the creation of an allied military force operated by Homeworld Command for the defence of Earth and for all off world teams traveling throughout the galaxy.

This clause in the Charter caused a very large sticking point in the negotiations, up until now off world forces were nearly entirely American, only Atlantis had an international force, while some SG teams were composed of other countries military and Greyson wanted that changed reflecting the cooperation between nations he was striving for with the new charter and he wanted it to effect not just the off world teams but also the crews of their ships.

None of the nations had been happy with his idea and it had taken a great deal of convincing for him to get them agree, but eventually they accepted that a unified Homeworld Command could not man the ships and off world teams with only the military from one nation as it would undermine the Charter.

So a new military force was proposed, a coalition of the best men and women from each nations Air Force, Navy and Armed forces all of which would then be assigned to missions such as off world exploration, Galactic ship personnel, pilots of the F302 squadrons to ground troops needed for any unforeseen action off world and the defence of the planet should the need arise.

The new military force would also be in charge of gathering intelligence across the Milky Way to be better prepare for threats and a division of the forces would be devoted to deep cover, surveillance and all other intelligence gathering requirements.

The proposed military was to be called the United Nations Independent Taskforce and they would begin transferring forces from the existing military forces who worked in the SGC and under Homeworld Command to the new force.

The Unified Intelligence Taskforce was created; it was new military force, a coalition of the best men and women from each country's Air force, navy and Armed forces, the three forces were they assigned to different mission for Earth, from off world teams, F302 pilots to ship personnel.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Ares – Earth Orbit **

It was the day that the Lucian Alliance fleet was set to attack Earth, and it had been five days since Torchwood has revealed itself to the world and one day since the Stargate Alliance Charter has been officially signed by the leaders of the nations of Earth.

It had taken a further two days for Torchwoods Director to get the new charter finalised and signed but it had taken a monumental amount of effort from everyone but it had been signed and the changes were still underway.

The new military forces were still being created so on the day that enemy fleet was heading for Earth, the fleet of Earth was being manned by their nation of origin crew until such a time an international crew could be assigned.

Above the planet sat the _Apollo_ and _Sun Tzu_ looking rather lonely, it was to look like the planet was defenceless as the Alliance believed it to be, but secretly the planet was ready, the weapons platform manned and the drones were all ready to be deployed, controlled by the Chair that had been built by the Atlantis expedition.

Also in orbit above the planet under cloak was the British ships _Elizabeth II_ and _Majestic_ of the BC304 class, the _Prometheus II_ of the BC303B class and the Ares of the new BC305 class of vessel.

The _Prometheus II_ was just like the ship that was under construction in the UK shipyards, but it was the _Ares_ that was a sight to behold.

_Ares_ was a twenty-five percent larger than its smaller sister ship of the 304 class, and could travel at sublight speeds of 125,000 KM/s which was faster than the Mark I vessels such as the _Apollo_, and _Sun Tzu _which was limited to 75,000 KM/s, the Mark II vessels like the _Elizabeth II _could travel at 100,000KM/s and only the Mark III _Majestic_ and the _Prometheus II _that could match the _Ares_ sublight speeds due to their newer engines.

Primary power to the ship came from a Mark IV naquadah generator and that power was further fed through a superconductor which amplified the power output and channelled it across the ship, it was equipped with Asgard shield systems and Asgard sensors.

Its armament was compiled of six Asgard plasma beam cannons, four pulse cannon turrets and thirty-four railguns and a full complement of forty missiles. The ship was only a cruiser and did not have hanger bays for a squadron of F302, instead there was a single cargo bay which was design to have to Jumpers docked in it for transport.

It was the most powerful ship in Earths Arsenal if they did not count the _Tria_ and Earths small but powerful fleet lay in wait for the Alliance.

All of the ships sensors were probing the vastness of space waiting for the Alliance to arrive and their sensors and the long range sensors on the planet had picked up the incoming wave of ships.

"This is Brigadier Myres of the _Ares_ calling all Earth vessels." Myres said in an open broadcast. "Remain under cloak and await the command of General O'Neill."

O'Neill had remained the head of the Earth Defence at Homeworld Command as had been the first to transfer to Earth new united military, he was popular and he was highly respected by many leaders of the world.

When the hyperspace windows opened and out flew a Cha'rak, an Apophis-class Goa'uld mothership, seven Ha'tak vessels, and forty Al'kesh and almost one hundred Tel'taks

It was an impressive force of strength from the alliance and they advanced towards Earth not knowing that the Alliance plan had been discovered.

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	21. Chapter 21

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Twenty-One**

**Hybrid Conception**

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

The city of Atlantis was incredibly hectic, and it had been for the last month. The Trinity Queens had mounted a large assault across the galaxy and they were culling each world hard but it was not without casualties, AR Teams had been sent to the effected worlds and had found a very large number of Wraith dead on them as well all of the killed due to the Hoffam drug

The _Daedalus, Tria_ and Generational ships were seeing a lot more action than they had over the years since Atlantis had returned to Pegasus, they were trying to reduce the Trinity Queens fleet through attrition and they were trying to avoid direct conflict at the time as they were not certain they could keep their superiority.

They had also discovered three more locations of Wraith laboratories all of which were researching shield technology and even hyperdrive technology. The AR teams had realised that the Wraith had access to designs and specifications of Aurora-class technology which worried them as they did not know how they had that data.

John was in the middle of a briefing with the various ship commanders and the Atlantis High Council when Amelia interrupted them mid-session.

"Colonel, you are going to want to see this." She said urgently "We are receiving a communication for you."

John frowned wondering what had her so worried, but nodded and excused himself and followed her down to Stargate Operations and she transferred the communication to the wall screen.

On the large display screen was the face of Todd.

"Hello John Sheppard." Said the wraith with the familiar husky voice.

Seeing the change in Todd's appearance made John raise a brow, "Hello Todd, I am surprise to hear from you, our latest intelligence placed you in a distant corner of the galaxy hiding from the Trinity Queens, looks like you caught the sun a little bit" he added referring to the more human colouring he now had.

Todd raised his hand and revealed that he did no longer had his feeding organ, "I used the research of your friend Michael and the developments of your Doctor Beckett and Keller to end my hives need to feed. Sadly, the effect leaves us looking more like you."

He wasn't wrong John agreed, Todd had retained his facial markings and the slits on either side of his nose, his skin was still pale but was pinker than the former greenish tinge that he had, and they retained their white hair and the sharp talons on their fingers.

"What do you want Todd?" asked John.

"I want what you want, a way to end the threat of culling to this galaxy" Todd said as if it was obvious "I have only a small number of followers but all of whom are now like me, they no longer need to feed. You should allow me to come to Atlantis, I have a proposition for you."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Deep Space - Wraith Hive Ship**

Sitting in the new capital ship of the hive fleet were the Trinity Queens, the ship was the newest in their fleet and it had been grown especially, and had been grown out of two other queens and they had interrelated raw naquadah into the ships composition to strengthen the hull, it created a better structure integrity and boosted the power but it was unstable.

The three thrones were arranged in a triangle in each corner of the room and the queens were all facing the commander who was their chief scientists among the fleet, their conversation had started a while before and already the Queens were getting impatient.

"We have been unable to locate the faction led by the Wraith named Guide my Queens." The commander reported "However we have received reports of them."

"What do you know" the Primary Queen demanded "what is he doing!"

"My Queens our worshipers have said that look different, more akin to human." He said quickly only to flinch due to the telepathic rage that was being transmitted from all three queens.

"He must be using the research that the abomination known as Michael started" the secondary Queen said "he is transforming his hives into hybrids and removing the weakness of hunger and feeding."

"He was always clever" the tertiary Queen admitted "Too clever to have been allowed to live so long, he must know that the human worlds are infected with the taint, we have suffered losses from it."

"We must destroy him before he gains more followers" the Secondary Queen said "Our hold over our fleet may diminish if Guide gathers more strength."

"What is our fleet strength?" the Primary asked the commander.

"The Fleet of thirty-seven Hives and seventy Cruisers are ready my Queens" the Commander said Bowing "they are ready to fight but most of the crews are hungry and have not fed in some time."

"What of the Lanteans?" the Primary demanded "Have we discovered their location?"

"No, they are hiding and we are unable to find them, they have destroyed three hives in the just as many days my Queens." The Commander reported, "They have one of the Earth built ships, an Ancient Lantean warship and a number of the smaller ships of those that call themselves travellers."

"Send out the Fleet, I want that betrayer found, but you are to remain on the planet, Guide left the research of shields and hyperdrives, I want those upgrades on our fleet." The Primary ordered after speaking to her sisters. "Go now!"

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

Stepping through the gate under the watchful gaze of an armed escort was Todd. He had been met on a planet of Atlantis's choosing and from their they travelled through the gate four times, and it was only after they had checked Todd for any subspace locators, partially grown or not in his body and discovering none they blindfolded him and then dialled another gate before finally gating to Atlantis.

Once he stepped through the gate on Atlantis his blindfold was removed and was escorted to the conference room where the High Council sat and began their discussion.

"You've accomplished much since your return to this Galaxy Sheppard" Todd congratulated "It surprises me that you are the leader of Atlantis when you were not before."

"Listen Todd, I did not allow you hear for small talk" John said impatiently "Now what is it that you want."

"As you can no doubt tell from my appearance we have perfected the research of Michael and I have administered the treatment to all under my command, we no longer feed on your own race." Todd continued ignoring his tone "We eat like you, but my former brothers are still under the control of the Queens who called themselves the Trinity."

"You must understand that the research that you have used does not endear yourselves to us" Woolsey said "Michael did a lot of harm with that research."

"Understandable but I mean you and your people no harm Mr Woolsey, no it is my intension to unify all Wraith under one leader without the need to feed on humans and if possible leave this galaxy to start anew. I am under no illusion that the human worlds of this galaxy will never be inclined to trust or stand for our presence within this galaxy even with our new nature." He admitted.

"You do not currently have the technology to leave this galaxy." Caldwell pointed out, it was a known fact that Wraith hyperdrive was limited to Interstellar travel and even they were pretty weak due to their hull composition.

"No we do not, but we are aware that you do, your own Homeworld is in another Galaxy." Todd said "Would it not be beneficial for you to share your technology?"

"No." John said flatly

"Pity, but I am not surprised" the former wraith laughed.

"I am gonna go out on a limb here and guess that the Trinity Queens are aware of what you have done and they will seek to destroy you and the research before they allow you to usurp their domination of the Wraith." John stated, "So what is it you want Todd."

"Your guess is correct John Sheppard, the Queens have been hunting myself and all who are loyal to me since you released me and I re-joined my fleet. We are a threat to them as we do not need to feed and it is possible that I can draw more of their Wraith to myside. Our people worked together to destroy the Asurans and we helped you save your own world, I propose that we ally ourselves again in order to remove the wraith from this galaxy once and for all."

"You are asking us to fight your war for you Todd." Woolsey said boldly and he flinched the hybrids steely gaze lingered on him.

"Is it not for your own benefit to fight with me?" he enquired "You will destroy the Wraith in this galaxy and free the humans from being the livestock of a race who had defeated the Ancients and bring about peace to this galaxy, I will of course collect those Wraith who survive your attacks and administer the treatment and render them neutralised in your war."

"Before we agree, we will need a show of good faith from you." John bargained "I want the locations of every Wraith stronghold and ship in this galaxy, and I want to know everything you do about the research the Queens are conducting on shields and hyperdrives. If you give you make good on this we can look to agree to your temporary alliance, but if you fail, Well I will lead the Queens directly to you myself and allow them to hunt you down and kill you."

Todd laughed loudly "I expect nothing less from you John Sheppard, and I knew you would be wanting something in return, My Hive had the necessary information that you require, I will need to call it."

"That can be arranged, we will escort you to a planet where you can call your hive to you." John said and the meeting ended with a security team taking Todd away, and left the High council sitting in the conference room.

"That was unexpected." Teyla stated once the door closed.

"Can we trust that Wraith Sheppard?" Larrin asked "You two seem to get along, he is the wraith who you brought aboard my ship wasn't he?"

"That was him" John agreed "We have an odd relationship, I saved him, and he saved me, it's happened a few times now. He still can't be trusted but so long as our needs are aligned he will not break the alliance."

"John I would like to see the treatment that he used." Dr Keller said "The fact that he has perfected it might allow us to perfect the Hoffam drug, I am sure Dr Beckett will also want to see it."

"Sure" John said nodding "Now shall we continue with the meeting we were having before Todd interrupted us?"

"Well I suppose so" McKay said and he turned the screen on to show a design he had been working on for an Earth designed Drone weapon which could be used to restock Atlantis and maybe even Earth if they opened communications again.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Vulcia – Temple of Grace**

She lay in the tall grass, feeling it itch her skin on the back of her neck, ankles and arms, and she opened relished in the warms of the sun on her face, she was laying in the middle of a meadow of pink large flowers and large black centers, she didn't know what type of plant they were but they were familiar to something of that she was sure.

The sun was so warm, she was not sure why she so enjoyed feeling the warmth of the sun, where could she have been that it was so cold? And why couldn't she remember? Perhaps it didn't matter anymore but it itched at her, it always seemed just beyond her grasp.

She stood and walked to the edge of the meadow to what the sisters called the path of the ancestral grace, it was the place that gave the temple its name, it was a long avenue bordered with large stones which were engraved with odd symbols that the sisters could not read or even knew their content.

The woman herself found the stone writing fascinating but she didn't understand them but she knew they spoke of a history, a story of what was and what could happen, how she knew this she did not know and it was only increasing her frustration.

Dreams was a place where she liked to go to, in her dreams she often saw images that she found both comforting and irritating as when she woke she couldn't remember all of the details.

_The night she had dreamt about a young girl sleeping beside a dying fire in tents lit by battery powered lanterns while adults talked quietly, and a radio picking up a broadcast of a female singing. _

_The girl's parents had been drinking strong British tea, and were talking about a great find they had made. _

_The girl was impatient and she was looking out over the dark plain where they had camped and she thought she saw something moving, so she got excited and began to walk towards it only for someone to pick her up around her waist. _

"_Get off me! I want to see the lions!" she exclaimed loudly kicking her legs. _

"_Calm yourself little one" said a man with an odd accent "the lions may see you which is something you will not want." The man placed her down in front of the fire where her parents were sitting. _

"_Oh Rene!" said her mother "thank you so much, Beth you must listen you Rene, you have to stay here while its dark." _

"_I want to see the lions!" She replied stubbornly. _

"_Lions are a dangerous animal little one." Rene told her kneeling down to speak with her, his dark skin almost invisible in the dark but his bald head reflected the light from the fire. "They know better than to attack a camp, but a child who walks off alone is fair game to them. Do as your mother says child, stay warm by the fire, you will see your lions in the morning."_

"_But I want lions…." _

"Lions…." The woman said as she walked

"What is a lion?" asked a voice from behind her.

Startled the woman turned around to see that the Mother Superior was behind her looking at her curiously.

"Kenya." The woman said automatically, the word falling off her tongue without her even thinking, "I remember Kenya."

"Is that the name of your world?" she asked.

"No." She shook her head, that was not her home, of that she was certain even if she didn't know why, "I was visiting with my parents, my father…." she paused, she hadn't seen him in the dream and his face didn't come to her now, but she saw his hands, and they were holding a brush, brushing red earth away from a buried bone, "He studied old things, bones? He was looking for an answer to how something began, we were in Kenya for his work."

"Do you know how to get back there; do you have family there?" the Mother Superior asked gently.

"No, It's a long way from here." She answered again not sure why she said it "But It was a long time ago, my father is gone now." She added in almost a whisper and a tear rolled down her cheek as an old sadness welled up in her, he had died a long time ago.

The Mother Superior placed a bony hand on her shoulder for comfort, "Do you have a name, we cannot keep calling you the Fallen One."

"Beth" she replied, "Mother called me…...Beth"

The mother superior smiled "Well Beth, I was coming to ask for your help, we have pilgrims coming and we need help getting a harvest ready for them, we trade food for medicines and other such things every year and it is nearing the time that they arrive."

"How do they arrive?" Beth asked.

"They live on their ships all year round and this is one of their ports" Mother said "Come I will show you where you can help."

"Of course." Beth said, happy to be so welcomed."

**Three thousand Lightyears outside of the Andromeda Galaxy **

Deep within a multi-coloured nebular which had fascinated may different advanced races over the millennia, within the nebular was a large structure that was rendered invisible due to the properties of this region of space.

The structure had been built as a last resort, for use when a time came when a sanctuary was needed and it had been in use for a number of years' invisible to all but the ascended beings who watched all but did not intervene.

The stations location was a secret, known only to thirty of the race who built it, the thirty who had the best chances of success to solve a problem that had them leave the universe.

However, a situation had presented itself, one that many of the secluded race had thought impossible, a device, an Ancient Lantean DNA manipulation device, had all but appeared in the structure along with a crystal that contained data, data that the race had been researching for a millennium.

"The question is not why the Ancients have delivered this technology to us, the question is when do we tell the humans of Earth?" Stated Thor.

As the scientists aboard the Asgard space station worked on the genetic derogation problems the High Council of the Asgard had been in session debating the subject amongst themselves.

Thor was of the opinion that the Humans of Earth were valued allies and friends of the Asgard, they were a young race but strong willed and had been willing to fight the Replicators for the Asgard when they needed help the most.

"Supreme Commander Thor, it was at your insistence that this council gifted our entire base of knowledge to Earth before we faked our destruction." Pointed out Odin, Chief Archon of the High Council.

Thor stood weakly, his most recent body was the weakest and feeblest that he had ever taken and took hesitant steps towards the High Council's podiums.

"They are the Fifth Race, Yes, we entrusted them with our entire history, all of our knowledge and our legacy, but we laid upon such a young race our responsibility, asking them to maintain our treaties and commitments. They are too young to carry out everything we once did in their Galaxy, they are not developed enough as a race or civilisation to be a galactic power, they were advancing fast but they need more time."

"The Ancients themselves have broken their laws of non-interference and given us the means to solve our genetic degeneration with a device that by all rights is the Humans of Earth, they are the second iteration of the Ancients. We along with the other Great Races allied ourselves for the betterment of scientific understanding, we have all but abandoned the children of our oldest ally, we are no better than the Vanir." Thor stated rebutting Odins point.

"We are not the Vanir!" Odin said sternly "And you cannot use them to win this argument supreme Commander, we only know of their existence due to our monitoring of Earth through our satellite network."

"I find myself agreeing with Thor" Freyr replied "The Ancients would not have helped us as they did long before they Ascended, their children have helped us greatly, our time in this universe is not over, when our problem is cured, we should reveal ourselves."

Odin changed the subject asking for the current status of the rebuilding of the Asgard fleet. Their entire fleet minus a single science vessel had been decimated when Othalla had been imploded in order to fake their deaths to the Ori.

The _Aesir_ had been on the opposite side of the planet under cloak had slipped away as the Ori ships had chased the _Odyssey_ away from the system aboard the vessel in its vast databanks was the consciousness of every known living Asgard in the last three millennia.

They had fled to the Valhalla, a space station that they had built for emergencies that was not known to any race in the universe, apart from the Ascended Ancients, they had transported it to the very heart of the Medusa Cascade using its unique properties to mask its presence and protect it from discovery and it was here that they were able to continue their work on their illness.

"Supreme Commander Thor, once our fleet is rebuilt, re-establish contact with Earth, explain what we did and why it was done and why we have only now contacted them" Odin eventually directed after a large discussion from the High Council, "However we should get information from what remains of our domain and the Milk Way. Send our seven of your scout vessels, have them check on our planets and people who fell under protection, when we reveal ourselves we will need this information.

Thor silently agreed, knowing that he had just been Victorious in his arguments, he would see to the stations construction bays production of new vessels and would have the scout ships depart the station as soon as possible.

The time for the Asgards return to the Universal stage was much closer than Thor believed possible and he silently thanked the Ancients.

**Higher Plane **

Janus and Ganos were secretly watching the Asgard aboard the Valhalla, it had been they who had delivered them the technology that they needed, having transported it from a secret laboratory Janus had created on Earth during his time after Atlantis and transported it aboard.

The genetic material and data had come from Atlantis, taken in secret from a vault that the Atlantis expedition had not discovered, the Ancients had taken the samples a long time ago when they had first encountered the Asgard from the data of the seeds ships.

"You knew that Thor would do what he could for Earth didn't you." Ganos accused her fellow Ancient.

"I did." Janus replied "Thor greatly respects General O'Neill and is a true friend of Earth."

"The Asgard should never have come to this." Ganos said sadly as she studied their current bodies, "I understand their choice to use cloning to extend their lives, but they made such a foolish mistake, a mistake that we could have prevented."

"They did not ask for our help" Janus pointed out "And they began this process as the plague hit our civilisation, we have helped them as we should have, our old alliance is still binding even if we are ascended, I respect the Alliance of our Four races."

"We never had need of it in Pegasus." Ganos said sadly "We were selfish."

"Ascension was our goal." Janus supplied "We became blind to the world after we abandoned our home, most of our people lost all hope and wanted to leave the universe."

"You know that some Asgard did ascend" Ganos told him, "The Others, the oldest of them, some of them are Asgard, there are only a handful but there are some, as there are some of the Nox still remaining in our plane."

Janus smiled ruefully, "The Nox have all ascended and retaken human form twice in their history, our own species beat them to it by only a small amount of time, they are truly a fickle people."

"You just do not have the patience for their ways." Ganos countered and she paused. "You know what has happened Pegasus don't you?"

"Yes, I felt it." Janus acknowledged, "Who did it?"

"I don't know, I have never met with them." She said.

"The Others will not like what we have done here." Janus said bitterly "I am thinking of taking my mortal form again, at least then I will not be at their mercy."

"It is not the time for that." Said a mysterious voice joining them.

Both Ganos and Janus jumped in surprise having not noticed the ascended being joining them and they were blinded by the strength that he had.

"You two have caused ripples that will touch many different galaxies. You have broken our highest laws, laws that stop us from being like the Ori, but I do not blame you, the two of you are young and idealistic and I do not disagree with what you have done. But I would caution you from doing anymore for a time, I am protecting you for now but it will not last."

"Was it you? Did you do it?" Janus asked thinking about the one person who had truly inspired him.

"No, that was another, right now you should both travel out down the gate network, especially you Janus, I think the humans may need your help soon and Destiny is out there and its crew will revive soon and that ship is heading for trouble."

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	22. Chapter 22

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Twenty-Two**

**Lucian Deceit**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Homeworld Command**

General Jack O'Neill had seen his share of changes over his long military career, from the discovery of the Gate and his first mission to Abydos, the creation of the SGC, the development of Earths fleet, the Atlantis Expedition and Destiny Expeditions all created new situations and changes as well as the international repercussion of running the gate.

But now the biggest change Jack had seen, which was comparable to the discovery of the Gate, was the signing of the new Stargate Alliance Charter with the creation of the World Council and the planned creation of an International Senate.

Blame for the change in international affairs and cooperation was given to the International Oversight Authority, a Civilian organisation that had been created to safe guard the world from the military creating war in the galaxy.

The IOA had betrayed Earth and had been helping the Lucian Alliance further their criminal dominance and the betrayal had been revealed by another civilian organisation, an organisation that had been in existence long before the gate had been discovered at Giza, and an organisation that had remained secret for over a century.

The Torchwood Institute had revealed itself to the world, they had used three ships, two of which they had built, to beam and detain all members of the IOA and known Lucian Alliance agents and associates.

But the Director of the Institute had also summoned all of the world leaders of every nation that was aware of the gate and pushed through the new Charter, and if Jack was honest he was still unsure about the entire affair.

Torchwood had been heavy handed with what Jack liked to refer to as a Coup d'état, and while the charter had been signed they was a great deal of grumblings and outrage from the politicians who governed each nation.

Jack was more conflicted than them, he saw what the director had done as a step towards a new future for the planet and it had been a kick up the proverbial arse, Earth was not united against the outside threats and now at least at an intergalactic level they now were, domestic affairs were still a mess but that was not Jack's problem.

Homeworld Command had been recognised as an international command, and Jack had been forced to leave the American Military and joined the newly created United Nations Independent Taskforce, an International military force whose purpose was to protect Earth from non-terrestrial threats, and it was U.N.I.T who ran Homeworld Command and Jack had remained in charge due to the support of nearly all World Leaders but it had been the World Council who had kept him on as it was their decision.

The Washington DC office was still headquarters for him at the moment, and would remain so until the _Valliant _was completed, and the office was on high alert with the attack on Earth imminent from the Alliance.

Earth should have been defenceless against the large armada that was on its way, if Torchwood had not intervened the Fleet would have arrived unnoticed, all defences would have been sabotaged and the two vessels Earth had would have been rendered useless due to IOA tampering and the fleet would have been able to take the planet with only world militaries to protect it, all of which would be useless against the fleet space ships, shields and weaponry from orbit.

HWC had been tracking the fleets progress to the Sol System through the long range sensors, and they had a plan for when they arrived. Jack ordered the three currently crewed British ships to activate their cloaks, even the Antarctic Weapons Platform remained powered down with the ZPM removed.

Jacks plan was to lead the fleet into a false sense of security, and thanks to Torchwood's intelligence on the attack they knew exactly how fake the conditions they Alliance was expecting.

In the Command Centre of the office complex Jack watched the largest screen on the wall which was tracking all telemetry from Earths tracking satellites and long range sensors.

Trent, Jacks go to technician for all things technical was at hand and he was monitoring his own station.

"General, Colonel Ellis and Colonel Cháng'ān are asking for your orders." Trent reported listening to the communication through the headset he was wearing.

"Tell them both to cease all communications and to follow my standing orders, when the Alliance arrives they will be sending a signal to Earth when this happens we will signal them and they are to move away from the planet at full sublight and broadcast panic and distress signals" Jack ordered, "The Alliance cannot know that we are aware of their plan. Now open a secure channel to the Brigadier Myers aboard the _Ares_, tell him that the remaining ships are to remain cloaked and await my further instructions."

Trent hastened to follow Jacks orders and as he did a proximity alarm sounded and an alert message popped up detecting multiple hyperspace windows opening in the system.

The computer scanned the ships and identified them, seven Ha'tak vessels the capital ships of many races who used what the System Lords left behind, Forty Al'Kesh bombers, and almost one hundred Tel'taks.

One last ship dropped out of hyperspace and the computer took a moment to identify it and it was labelled as a Cha'rak, it was the same design as Apophis's mother ship which he had claimed from another System Lord and the computer identified it thanks to intelligence from Tok'ra intelligence and from the reports of SG1's encounter with it.

It was an incredible sight to behold, and Jack wished he had a live visual of on oncoming fleet and not just a virtual readout of the sensors with just lines and dots.

The Command Centre was silent looking at the fleet that at that moment was traveling towards their planet intent on conquering them.

"General, we have detected a subspace signal emanating from the Alliance fleet." Trent reported "shall I send our own?"

"Yes." Jack ordered and he pointed to another tech "Connect to the Weapons platform, I want them ready to power up the chair on my order."

"Yes Sir!" said the women and she began to speak to the forces station in the cold south.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Lucian Alliance Flagship**

Couzan leader of the Alliance sat in the throne like chair aboard his flagship, he had found the construction planet where Sokar had built the first of the ships class and had the Alliance build another just for him.

He basked in his brilliance, his plan of infiltrating Earth and bringing them to their knees using the greed of their own people had been his idea and it was working well, he gave the order to signal those fools of Earths IOA to activate the lockout programs for the ships in orbit.

"Couzan, sensors are showing the _Apollo_ and _Sun Tzu_ are in orbit, scans of the planet and communications reveal that they have no knowledge of our presence," said Brianna a white haired woman from Couzans own Homeworld "The two vessels have powered their sublight engines and are accelerating rapidly towards the planets moon, they are trying to broadcast a distress signal but Earth had not detected it."

"Good, it seems like Strom had lived up to his word." Couzan said smiling "What of the Ancient weapons platform at the planets southern pole?"

"Our sensors are not reading anything." She said "No energy readings are detected, and the fleet has not detected any scanning from the planet."

"We shall proceed, get us closer and we shall begin our bombardment." Couzan ordered.

The Alliance fleet accelerated and formed a large triangular formation that was heading straight for the planet.

The Earth ships had disappeared from view as they had piloted themselves to the other side of the moon, outside the visual range and they would not be able to help their planet.

Smiling as he ordered all ships to power their weapons and had the locations of the planets military targets sent to each ship was caught by surprise when suddenly twenty of the forty Al'kesh were destroyed in an instant and a number of the cargo ships were also heavily damaged or destroyed by their explosions.

"What happened!" he demanded glaring at his crew.

"We don't know! Sensors are not detecting anything" Brianna said staring at the holographic screen."

But as she spoke the ships sensors detected three vessels as they shimmered into existence in front of the progressing fleet.

"How is that possible!" Couzan demanded "Earth only has two vessels in this galaxy!"

The shields of all of the fleet were raised and they powered their weapons targeting the new ships and bolts of energy impacted their shields and they also blossomed in defence.

"Couzan, the lead ship, it is a class of vessel that I have never seen before, I am reading increased energy output and considerable weapons signatures." Garza said from the weapons controls,

Couzan was shocked, Earth only had two vessels and they had just disappeared on a trip to the moon, how could they have three ships that he knew nothing about, they couldn't have built them in a week!

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Ares Bridge**

When the Alliance had arrived the British ships had remained cloaked and had waited until the fleet had begun to push towards the planet and for the _Apollo_ and _Sun Tzu_ to move away from the planet.

The _Ares _and her smaller sisters used their beaming technology and deployed twenty-four enhanced nuclear mines in front of the smaller bombers and near the cargo ships, it would cause confusion and those ships were the higher concern for now as they didn't want any of the ships to get to the planet surface and allow Alliance forces to been deployed to fight on the ground.

Brigadier Myers ordered for a quick succession of hits with the APB weapons and the blue lances struck out at the Alliance and hit their shields, but held but their sensors detected that they had been severely depleted and could not take another hit.

The Alliance forces were not holding back, their own weapons were impacting the fleet shields. A single Ha'tak vessel could not take on an Earth vessel, their shields were far superior and they would easily destroy them with their own weapons, but this was a very large fleet with their weapons concentrated on three ships and it was slowly depleting their shield strength just with sheer numbers.

The Cha'rak was the most powerful of the ships, they had never gotten a good look at the original but it was clear to Earth that this had been improved and its weapons packed a very large punch.

Behind the Alliance forces _Apollo_ and _Sun Tzu_ were approaching in a stealth mode, they had piloted themselves around the moon and then used only their momentum to get themselves closer and turned off all but their life support systems to prevent their detection.

When they just outside of optimal battle range six retrofitted F302's flew out of the hanger bays, they had been fitted with a Asgard Plasma Beam Battery and it had been strapped to the underside of the Interceptors, they were hardly battle ready but that was not the point of their added components.

As the _Apollo_ and _Sun Tzu_ entered weapons range they along with the F302's went to full power and were detected by the Alliance ships, but as the F302's powered up so too did the holographic projections hiding the fighters within a single hologram each.

The Alliance faced three Earth ships in front of them, but now eight further ships had entered the fight behind them and their weapons struck the Alliance fleet and more ships were destroyed but the Alliance did not fleet until they saw a swarm of orange lights streaking up from the southern pole.

Immediately the ships began to manoeuvre away from Earth and their fleet and within moments they jumped away to Hyperspace but not before just over a third of the fleet had been destroyed, and a third of it had been severely damaged.

Myers looked out of the bridge observation window with a look of satisfaction, Earth had survived the fleet attack with a show of true strength using their fleet but also utilized a deception. The Planet would be given a wider berth now but it would not last indefinitely but after the shakeup he knew that it would be welcomed, things needed to return to some normalcy.

But they had dealt the Alliance an embarrassing loss and Homeworld Command was now certain that Couzan would not last much longer as leader due to his failures.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

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	23. Chapter 23

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Twenty-Three**

**Black Eye Combat**

**Black Eye Galaxy – USS George Hammond**

Brigadier General Samantha Carter had devoted thirteen years of her life to the Stargate Program, and in all that time she had never regretted it. She had managed to create Earths dialling computer from scratch, had developed their first naquadah generators, collaborated with Rodney McKay on the gate bridge between Pegasus and the Milky Way and the development of the subspace capacitor and she had even had a hand in the designs of the F302, BC303 and BC304 along with many other technologies she had researched and helped with.

To be stranded galaxies away from her home and friends without what she counted as the normal threats and missions that gave her a purpose she felt she was at somewhat of loose end.

Sam thanked the SGC and Gate Program for many things and while she acknowledged that not all of the past years were good and some moments had been devastating she would not change them, she had mended her relationship with her father, had created life long bonds of friendships with SG1 and many other members of the Program and she had even found love from the Gate.

But now all she had was free time as the _Hammond _and _Odyssey_ travelled across the Black Eye Galaxy to the path that would allow them to get back home, Sam had not been idle in all her free time, she and Cam would often switch commands allowing Sam access to the Asgard core aboard his ship and Cam a slight change of scenery, from what they had been told by Teal'c, Cam did not do well cooped up for long periods of time.

Sam had first set about designing a new midway station in case one was ever necessary, the first had truthfully been nothing more than a large floating box without any real purpose or defences. No the second generation of the Station would be far superior.

She designed it to be far larger, it would obviously retain gates from both networks, but each was to be equipped with a shield and iris, the gates themselves were to be placed in a long cylindrical structure which also contained shielding technology to trap and contain threats if needed and as a last resort bulkhead would close in front of each gate and the module the gate was attached to would be jettisoned from the station.

Above the Stations Gateroom, Sam had designed a larger structure with shields, weapons, hyperdrive and sub light engines that could be used to defend the station from attack but also relocate it if necessary. Incorporated within the design was a cloaking modulator which would be attached to the shield emitters which would be used to keep the station invisible.

Vala also had a hand in the design pointing out possible ways of entry to the station and Sam had been grateful for her help as some of her ideas were unorthodox but were entirely possible and the station was to be inaccessible to all but the SGC and Atlantis, no other gates were to be able to connect to it and if a connection was made then there were to go no further.

Sam had smiled as Vala helped her, she knew that Vala was trying to escape her boredom and it was oblivious from the tension between Daniel and Vala there had been a disagreement and Sam did not want to pry, but she wondered if they would soon realise their differences and get on with things.

The last project Sam had undertaken was the matter streaming technology system and incorporating it into the mining beaming technology, she was trying to come up with a technology that would remove raw materials from a source, and then transform them into a state for easier transportation and future use, such as a block of naquadah. The second phase of the technology would then take raw power and the processed material and then using the matter streaming technology reorganise them at a molecular level into an object or shape depending on the programing of the device.

The Asgard had installed a matter stream platform aboard the _Odyssey_ and it was being put to great use, and it could construct almost anything from nothing but raw power supplied by the Asgard core, ZPM and the _Odysseys_ own engines.

Matter stream construction was the future for Earth's construction of technology and defence assets, but for it to be feasible they had to reduce the power requirements and Sam was floundering, the mining aspect of the technology was still at the beta testing stage but the power requirements of it did not reduce her proposed process, instead it added to it.

Sighing and rubbing her temples due to the dull ache she had got from looking at her laptop, she closed the screen and stood and stretched and looked at herself in the mirror.

"Not as young as you used to be are you." She said regarding her reflection before rolling her eyes and walking out of her quarters.

The Blackeye Galaxy was enormous, of all the star maps she had seen, the Milky Way was bar far the largest, but no, this galaxy was three times the size but less populated with star systems and so far neither ship had detected any sign of life forms on the planets they had passed.

Originally Sam and Cam planned to have their ships continuously travel in hyperspace until they reached the corridor of space that would allow they to access hyperspace towards Earth and bypass the off Medusa Cascade.

But Daniel, ever the researcher and scientist had pointed out that Earth may never have the resources or time to send out an expedition this region of the universe and as they did not know much about it from the Asgard Core, and the Atlantis Database may not contain anything, wasn't it their duty to gather more information.

So they had agreed with Daniel, both ships would travel to the other side of the Galaxy independently and would periodically drop out in space to take a look around and scan the planets for life or anything of interest, even if they did not investigate everything, back on Earth the data could be reviewed and may one day be used to create a new expedition.

They so far had discovered two more Asgard satellites over planets, but they had found no sources of life on those planets, there were signs of civilisations or at least they thought they were but nothing else.

Sam was walking towards the officer's mess when the ship shuddered slightly as it re-entered normal space for a scheduled scan of a local star system when a ship announcement sounded.

"General Carter please report to the Bridge Immediately." Said a tense voice of an operator.

Noticing the tone Sam broke out into a run, dashing through the corridors of the ship.

"Make a Hole!" she shouted as she ran and her crew parted and pressed themselves to the walls to allow her to pass easier as she stepped into the bridge she saw why she had been called.

Outside the window were five ships, five incredibly large ships.

Sam stepped forwards in awe, the ships themselves were cylindrical and were longer than a hive ship but were only twice the width of her own.

"Report, have they tried to communicate?" Sam asked.

"No, scans of the ships only indicate a power source akin to our own and no shields." Marks reported "They had been moving when we dropped out of hyperspace but they have stopped now."

"Send a subspace communication to Odyssey, we may need their help if this turns hostile" Sam said and she opened up a wide broadcast across all known frequencies, "This is Samantha Carter, Captain of the Hammond, we mean you no harm we are peaceful explorers."

"Do you think they will understand that?" Vala asked from behind her.

"Probably not but we have to start somewhere" Sam said "And I would rather not tell them where we are from just in case."

"Translate your statement" Vala said stepping up the bridge window and looking at the ships, "Daniel wrote a program for this, I remember him droning on about how important it was when he refused to take me shopping, but that is beside the point, they are not from Earth, they may not know your language, send it in every known tongue and dialect you know."

"It couldn't help" Sam acknowledged and nodded to her communications officer "give it a try, hopefully we might get lucky."

"In my experience, our luck is not very good." Vala pointed out "Remember the Ori?"

"Marks, get shields online but do not power weapons, I do not want this to turn into a fight." Sam ordered "West what is in this system?"

"One red dwarf star and five celestial bodies" West, the female operator said "I one of those bodies is a planet and from what I can tell it falls right at the edge of our sensor range is that it is almost entirely water, some small landmasses but I think it might mostly be a swamp."

"Interesting." Sam said and she sat down "take us about, I would rather not have to face off against this race of beings. Are we able to detect anything else from the ships, life signs?"

"I am not sure General" Marks said staring at his screen confused by the readings, "I think there may be over seven hundred life signs aboard, the sensors are not getting a clear read as its detecting varied humidity aboard the ships."

"Okay, well we know there is an advanced life form in the galaxy, and from the look of those ships they are clearly a spacefaring race" Sam said "get us back to hyperspace, and alert Mitchel, we should be on the lookout."

"General!" Marks shouted "Another ship has just entered the system."

"What ship?" she asked.

"It dropped out of FTL and sensors indicate it is powering weapons."

Sam paused, this was not their fight and she shouldn't get involved.

The new ship was unlike the first, it was a patch work of parts and components and there were signs of considerable damage on its hull but it flew with a great speed, and it was baring down on the three alien ships.

The Hammond was suddenly assaulted by a burst of data being broadcast from the new arrival and it was a high pitched sounds they made the crew cry out and grab their ears.

Sam reached for the arm of her chair and pressed the controls for the ship communication system and deactivated it and the sound stopped immediately.

"What was that!" she cried, "I need an answer now."

"We don't know general, it reminded me of the sound from old fashioned dial up internet." West replied bringing up diagnostics, "But it didn't do anything."

"We have been targeted." Marks said "the ships has locked on to us and the three other ships are getting away from us."

"Marks take us … "Sam began to say when the enemy ship fired five missiles although Sam was more inclined to call them torpedoes due to their size and they were coming directly at them. "Full Military Thrust! Move us Out."

The Hammond came to life with power diverting to the sublight engines and it moved fast, the rail guns mounted over its hull also activated and opened fire on the torpedoes.

"Rail gun fire has no effect, the weapons are not even reaching it." Marks said shocked.

"Shield?" Sam enquired.

"No, neither of the alien vessels have shields nor the weapon."

"Brings up and back around, those weapons are tracking us and we cannot keep avoiding them and jumping to hyperspace is not an option, power APB weapons, let's see how they handle this." Sam ordered and her crew followed her order immediately.

Hammond was a small ship, especially when compared to the larger ones she faced now, but she was fast and nimble and far more manoeuvrable, they avoided the torpedoes and turned to face their aggressors as they changed course so did the weapons.

"We have a lock General." Marks said "firing five strikes."

The beams of plasma shot out and impacted the torpedoes which exploded on impact and they released a severe burst of radiation which was blocked by their shields.

"Give them a single shot, hit them hard." Sam ordered.

One last plasma beam shot out from the ship and impacted the alien ship's hull and cut straight through the metal and exposed large areas to space and caused some secondary explosions.

The ship stopped moving and seemed to be watching them carefully and then turned away and executed a FTL jump and left the system.

"General the ships left, but the three other ships they are coming back and they are broadcasting." Marks said surprised and he opened the channel they saw a group of beings on the screen.

They were humanoid that much was clear, what marked them as not being human was their odd large eyes and their skins were marked with black tattoos each and every one of them had markings that was different, they dressed in odd clothes with odd accessories but they were looking at them with surprise.

"They look human." Vala said.

"So do Jaffa." West pointed out and she went to say something else when the man at the front spoke and as he spoke his markings glowed a bluey green colour.

"Gimlu ardatu ubāru, Āliūtum ayabbītu akkunu e ' iltu"

None of the crew understood what he said but smiled and nodded unsure of the correct conduct and the other crew smiled so they assumed that they must be doing something right.

Instead Sam ordered another communication to be sent in the same fashion as their last.

"We are leaving now, we have a great journey ahead, our actions here are regrettable and we apologise, but we will leave now with peace."

The communication was sent and the broadcast between the ships was cut short and then the Hammond jumped to hyperspace.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – Washington DC **

Jack sighed as he left the Homeworld Command officers and got into his car and he wished that he had never got out of bed that morning.

With the Alliance held at bay for a time, the newly formed World Council was trying to finalise the Stargate Alliance Charter and get the ball rolling with the creation of the United Nations Independent Taskforce or UNIT as it had been officially designated but there was strong opposition to the name so its named was being reviewed, but while officially it existed none could agree of a way forward for it.

The World Council with Jack's input was trying to formalise the structure of officers ranks within UNIT trying to iron out a system into which all nations Armed Forces could slot into without much fuss and it was incredibly trying only made more complicated by the World Council wanting UNIT to operate as a single entity.

All signed parties of the Charter would provide officers from their respective Navy to provide crews for Earths Galactic fleet of warships, they would be crewed and maintained by them Navy officers and enlisted civilians.

The Airforce currently would be taking a step back regarding their involvement on the new structure, only supplying pilots for the F302 program and commanding all divisions relating to them, in the future they would also pilot any new Space Fighters, but would also crew the Valliant as it was a Carrier Ship.

Earth's numerous Armies were to provide all necessary boots on the ground for the defence of the SGC, from security and base personnel, and be the military forces deployed off world if a need arose.

Jack was placed in charge of UNIT as Commander-In-Chief, responsible for all matters for Homeworld Defence all areas that fell under the organisations purview and he reported directly to the world council.

After fifteen hours, three litres of coffee, six Aspirin and an untold number of arguments they had only managed to outline the rank system to be used aboard all Earth Vessels.

Admiral of the Fleet: A single Officer who would be the Head of the Earth and reported directly to Jack and has a seat on the Defence Board.

Admiral: Officers who commands the larger fleets, Admiral of the Home Fleet, Admiral of Atlantis Defence Fleet

Vice Admiral: Officers who run the various departments within a fleet of ships and are often in charge of secondary fleets, and manages facilities for the Admiral.

Rear Admiral: Officer who commands Earths military support vessels and manages all supplies for the fleet.

Commodore: A Senior officer of the Fleet who can be called on to command a small contingent of vessels.

Captain: Officer Rank and position, captain of a ship in the fleet.

Commander: Senior member of ship crew and Second in command.

Lieutenant commander: Executive officers aboard a vessel who have varied responsibilities aboard vessels but make sure the ship is fully functional and crew is performing. responsible for keeping the ship running.

Lieutenant: Senior Officers responsible for overseeing crew and maintaining work productivity.

Sub-lieutenant: Junior Officer have very few responsibilities

Midshipman: Entry level position, but also can be cooks, cleaners and engineers.

Jack couldn't wait to get to his apartment, he needed his wits about him tomorrow there was to be further meetings with the World Council, or more accurately more meetings using hologram technology to project a hologram themselves from their offices to his own.

But as he drove to his Washington apartment he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched, he drove for much longer than he needed to and tried to detect any kind of tail but didn't find any so he changed direction and headed home.

Paranoid was not how Jack described himself, merely cautious, with the state of the world he couldn't be too careful.

The next morning Jack was tired still, but he knew that he had a long day ahead of him and when he got to his office in time for the follow up meeting from the day before he wished briefly that the Ori or Goa'uld would return, at least he then might get out of his office.

"General O'Neill." Said someone walking behind him and he turned and was surprised to see Richard Woolsey.

"Woolsey, what are you doing here?" Jack asked surprised, Woolsey had been rounded up with other IOA members during the changeover and had obviously been cleared.

"The Torchwood Operatives released me two days ago, I must say while I cannot appreciate the lengths they went to with the interrogation, I cannot say that they were not thorough."

"Did they harm you?" Jack asked slightly concerned, Torchwood was still part of the unknown.

"No no no, I was unharmed, their Director spoke to me at length, he was very interested in Atlantis and High Councillor Sheppard." Richard said frowning, "Have you contacted Atlantis?"

"Unfortunately while things here are still uncertain all gate activity has ceased, and the cold shoulder Sheppard gave the IOA and Earth had not gone over well." Jack said.

"He is a good man with the pressures of three societies, a Galaxy at war with a race of vampires caused by us, and then the added pressure of a government and military an entire galaxy away making demands of him" Richard said "It is not easy."

"You would know that having led the Atlantis Expedition." Jack agreed.

"Yes, but John has taken Atlantis further than I did, with the Athosians and Travellers he has created something entirely new and we both know he is not a diplomat, he is a soldier and does not care for pointless meandering and politics."

Jack smiled and led Woolsey to his office, he personally like Sheppard a great deal and despite his history on Earth and with the airforce, everything that Sheppard had done since joining Atlantis and the SGC had been above board and he did not fault him.

"I envy him" Jack said "I wish we could swap places, if you told me when I first began on SG1 that I would eventually drive a desk in Washington responsible for all of Earths defences I would tell you to go and see Dr Frasier and get your head checked."

"You were a different man back then General."

"In a very different world Richard." Jack said and pointed out of the window at Washington surrounding them "This is not that same world, it is changing and I am an old man, Sheppard is new blood in the Gate Program he might even have the right idea even if he goes about it wrong, but the old dogs who run this country will not like it and it is my job to bring them into this new 21st century Earth."

"Can you help him?" Richard asked "John wants Atlantis to be an entirely separate entity to Earth, but that was only because of the IOA, with them gone he will be more open to helping as long as you give him the respect he is due."

Jack considered that, he had trusted Sheppard with the city when he gave him command of it and had not agreed at all with the IOA and their decisions regarding the fate of the Lantean Society or even their technology they demanded.

"I have protected Sheppard a lot, but he is not without support." Jack said he then thought of Torchwood, they may be independent but they would probably want to see the city. "Give us a week to get everything sorted on Earth and then we can get in touch with Sheppard."

Richard smiled and left happy to have got something from Jack.

Jack picked up his phone and dialled a number from a card he was given aboard the Ares.

"This is Jack O'Neill of UNIT for Director Greyson of Torchwood."

"Please Hold." Said a women and the line went silent.

"Hello Jack." Greyson said and Jack could hear his surprise at the call.

"Greyson, how do you feel about a visit to the City of Atlantis?" Jack asked.

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Please Review! Added to Favourite and Communities please!

UNIT - this is a temporary name for the new military, it will be changed later, it really was just a Doctor Who reference.

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	24. Chapter 24

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Twenty-Four**

**Second Encounter**

**Black Eye Galaxy – Binary Star System – USS Odyssey **

Cam Mitchell was sitting in his command chair bored, he was not the kind of commander to be sent out to explore, he was a man of action and traverse ring the Black Eye galaxy was the most boring thing he had ever done.

Although he wondered now more than ever how he had fared in the alternate timeline aboard the _Odyssey_, for an entire lifetime he had apparently been trapped on that ship and from what Teal'c had said he had gone stir crazy but had managed to stay sane.

To relieve some of the tedium of traveling through hyperspace to the passage that would lead them home, both Sam and Cam had their ships drop out periodically to give the crews some time out of hyperspace and tried to get them some time on a planet if they detected them, however Cam secretly thought Sam was using it as an excuse to study this galaxy.

Cam had taken to going out in a F302 occasionally just to escape the ship and the chair. He loved his command of the _Odyssey_, the Lucian Alliance war back home was heating up and he wanted to be on the front lines, but if that wasn't possible he would take the fight to the Wraith in Pegasus, Colonel Sheppard was running that galaxy from Atlantis with only Daedalus, it was time the Wraith came to fear _Odyssey_.

He was in the middle of imagining commanding the ship in a battle with the Wraith when his attention was caught by the sensor operator.

"Sir, we are just have reached the system that Doctor Jackson found in the Asgard Core, preparing to drop out on the outskirts of the system."

He pressed the button on his chair and patched into the ship wide channel, "OK Boys and girls were a dropping out of Hyperspace, report to actions stations but hopefully we find a planet for a bit of R&amp;R."

_Odyssey_ transitioned seamlessly from the whirling blue tunnel of Subspace into real space within a binary star system with sixteen celestial bodies and willing nebulas.

"Well that is quite a sight" Cam whistled "We are not in Kansas anymore."

The ship was traveling through the system at sublight speed and was peering into the star system with its sensors and the data was streaming directing to the stations aboard the bridge.

"General, sensors are detecting three possibly life sustaining planet, no signs of advanced life forms as there is no registered EM readings." Said the young major monitoring the gathered data "the binary radiation emissions make most of these worlds unsuitable for life, this nebular within the system is like the Cascade it is preventing optimum sensor sensitivity."

Cam nodded but smiled, with three possible worlds that he could drop some of his people off on to get some time away from the ship, and personally he wouldn't mind seeing trees and skies.

He turned to the communication officer "Send a short Subspace burst to the George Hammond, let them know we have found a habitable system. And go to full Sublight, get us within beaming distance of those planets, and try and get the sensors working around that nebular, we don't want to be caught with our pants down."

The ship continued to propel itself through the vacuum of space and cut through the gaseous clouds of one of the celestial bodies towards the medium of the binary stars where the three planets beckoned.

As they got closer the ships sensors probed the space between it and the planets further and the data it collected was improving and they were able to get a better read on the possibility of habitability.

One of the Planets was a Class B Habitual world, it did not have the environment that was ideal to sustain human life, but it the planet was mostly underwater and extensive plant life, the planet did not receive much light due to the other planets in the system but the atmosphere trapped enough heat making it possible for life to be on the planet.

The two other planets were classified as a Class D and Class E, both were barely able to sustain human life, and their atmosphere was slightly toxic at different levels but the worlds were barren, the Class D world managed to support some plant life's and they shielded the Class B world from the radiation and if the sensors were correct they also shielded them from occasional meteor strikes.

"Sir, it is only the central planet that had environmental conditions that will support humans without an environmental suit." The sensor technician reported "I think there is animal life on the world, but no higher life forms, and if I am reading this correct it is a swamp world."

Cam stood and waked to the bridge observation window and crossed his arms and looked out at the system and wondered if it was worth the chance to let his people down to the planet.

There was a low beep from the sensor operators station which made everyone pause and look over in surprise.

"Sir, sensors have picked up two readings, I think one is satellite, the other is a ship." He reported "it is in a low orbit of a moon on the very outskirts of the Habitual zone and it is in a decaying orbit."

Cam nodded, and returned to his chair.

"Take us out, I want to see this ship." He ordered.

_Odyssey_ powered towards the moon and as they got closer the sensor readings were able to scan the vessel.

"According to the computers analysis, this ship has similarities to the ships that _Hammond_ encountered in this galaxy." He reported surprised pressing away at his console to get more information.

"Which ship, the one with friendlies or the one who was attacking them?" Cam asked annoyed that his sensor operator didn't tell him such an important thing.

"Oh, the friendly." The man said abashed.

They approached the ship slowly with their shields raised and we're ready for an attack but what greeted them was not a full sized ship like that Sam had encountered, instead it was a smaller vessel, matching the size of a Al'kesh and there was a severe damage to the hull.

"She has been knocked up quite bad."

"Yes Sir, I am detecting radiation leaking from the rear from what I think are the engines, there is power but just barely and that power is being diverted to two small rooms within the front of that ship." The sensor operator said frowning at the readings, "Sir I may be wrong."

"What?" Cam asked his temper starting to rise, he would have to find a new sensor operator at some point.

"Sir I think within those spaces there are life signs."

Blinking with surprise Cam considered that, and then smiled happily, "Well then, we have a ship that we have never encountered, let's crack open that egg and find out what's inside, send another message to _George Hammond_ and let them know what we have found."

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – London – Torchwood Headquarters **

The Director of the Torchwood Institute was under extreme external pressures after they had left the shadows from which they had operated since their founding. The Institutes actions had not been unrecognised by the world, many of them were thankful for their timely intervention as it had prevented the Alliance from attacking them unprepared and undefended.

No the problems they were facing were due to the nature that they had been able to place the entire world in a lockdown in order to seize control to weed out the Alliance rats, their subterfuge had caused a great deal of political fallout and none were happy that the Institute had been able to do what they had, it had been a massive slap in their face.

The Institute had only two one known face. Director Greyson was the man in charge of all of their operations around Earth and it was him who bore the brunt of all of the worlds anger.

Greyson was not a fool, the Alliance had forced his hand much earlier than he had planned and when he had initiated the plan to reveal themselves he knew that there would have been a backlash in international relations and the Institute would receive great criticism and adversary.

The World Council had given the Institute some autonomy, they had leased the Olympiad Shipyards for the future development of Earth's fleet and he had also provided them with four ships for the fleet as well as the designs for the Ares-Class and some of the technology it incorporated, but that only gave the Institute some breathing room, the full retribution for their action was yet to be seen.

Greyson knew that the World Council and by extension the signatories of the Stargate Alliance Charter would want access to all of the breakthroughs the Institute had made in its technology development and innovations, they had seen the technologies that had gone into the development of the improved BC303B design, they had revealed their bio engineering with the creation of Contact Lenses that revealed the IOA's duplicity, not to mention their body armour and their energy weapons.

The ships technologies the Institute had created were proprietary and they had the patents to them and Greyson had no intention of freely handing them over like he had done with the concessions he had made already.

UNIT, Earths new unified military force wanted their technology and General O'Neill was often calling Greyson to discuss things and had told him that name of the military woudl probably be changed in the next few weeks. Greyson didn't tell him that he already knew that as he had been informed by the British governement that the council had unofficially renamed them the Unified Terranian Armed Forces (UTAF). The Council was leaning to using the name the Ancient Altera had given their world, as it was hoped to be a beacon for the future, a time when the entire world would be a unified people who were aware of their place in the galaxy.

Greyson had instead agreed with O'Neill that for two years the Institute would be the sole producer and supplier of the technologies they had developed, after that period of time them UNIT/UTAF could purchase the patents for their technologies and begin their own production lines for ion propulsion sublight engines, anti-gravity wave generators and pulse cannons in exchange for a final payment for the sharing of the patent which would be transferred to the Institute.

The World Council had not been easy to sway on the matter of Torchwood's technologies and all but forced Greyson to reveal every identity of the operatives that he had seeded across the world in order to facilitate the capture of the IOA and detaining all Stargate affiliated facilities.

Greyson knew that those officers and assets would be in danger of reprisals but his hands were tied and each and every one of them had known the risks when they agreed. He provided a full list disclosing every member, he didn't leave out a single name as he did not want a falsehood to come back to bite him but had sent word to the various Stations to have operative's families moved and protected, he might not be able to protect his operatives but their families would not come to be harmed.

He also used the money that the Institute had gained through the new agreements not on the bettering the Institute infrastructure, instead he was channelling it into new projects with long term aims that Greyson had been having research for a number of years.

Earth infrastructure and sustainability was a project that he believed was a very high priority on his list of things that needed to be changed.

Planet Earth had a population of over seven billion humans, such a number was unheard of within both Pegasus and the Milky Way. Earth's resources were finite, with dwindling supplies of the much relied upon fossil fuels and the growing population necessitated more expansion of cities and towns causing deforestation, which coupled with the heavy pollution from industry, and melting of the polar ice caps the climate was already beginning to become unstable.

Climate change and fossil fuels were not the only pressing concerns, food and water were both problems that were still growing in demand but the supply was not able to cope, and with the growing population numbers, Earth currently could not keep up with that demand and parts of the world were still without running water after years of humanitarian projects.

There was a small company that had been created in yearly 1993 and was almost entirely unknown to both the general public and all members of the Gate Alliance, the company had been created in 2007 with little fuss or attention but had begun a campaign for international attention on the same days as the institute had intervened.

The company had offices located in London and Hong Kong that was focused on developing technologies aimed for the future and furthering innovations on sustainable technologies.

Trident Industries was no more than a public front for the Institute, it had been founded in 1993 as Trident Applied Sciences by five university students and was purchased by Torchwood secretly through various trusts and shell corporations, and it was Trident Industries that had publicly purchased the Battersea Power Station site for their new headquarters and research and development division for the development of new technologies, or more accurately bring reversed engineered alien technology to Earths market gradually and to show no massive leaps in innovation in order to keep the secret hidden from the public.

Technologies for power production, water sanitation, processing and waste recycling had all been researched by the Institute over the years, but now with the advances made through the Gate and with the newly gained money they were able to develop much more rapidly and ahead of anything currently being developed at Area 51.

Greyson had been in a meeting with the various heads of the Institutes Stations from across the globe when the call from O'Neill had come through to him and once the call had ended he sat quietly ignoring the looks he was being given.

"Director?" asked Eloise Hawkins who headed the Montreal Station which was one of the three stations based in Canada.

"Sorry, that was O'Neill." He said tapping his finger to the glass table thinking quickly "We have just been presented with an opportunity, he asked for our help on Atlantis and I think it would be a good for us to have a permanent presence there anyway."

"What help does he want?" Ross Sampson asked, he had been in charge of all of the UK stations but had been reassigned to the New South Wales Station in Australia while its Head was on leave.

"The Lantean Society that Sheppard has built is prospering but they do not have what they need to free Pegasus from the Wraith. As part of the agreement he created when he brought the Travellers into the society was to construct a shipyard to help with their ships and it is something that they have yet to even begin. O'Neill wants us to help with this since we managed it with Olympiad." Greyson explained a plan already forming "I think I will send Matt Hartman, he was annoyed his brother got to go to the Ancient City over him and he apparently made a good impression and that was just his imprint used by his twin, this will also get us some good graces from the World Council too."

"Freddie will want in on this too." Ross pointed out, he knew both Twins well having been the one to recruit them "Freddie may be a soldier but he has a great mind and he joined us after his experiences in the Middle East horrified him, he is good with technology taking to it like a fish to water, both should go."

"I know" Greyson agreed, he often found something very odd about the twins, but he never could put his finger on what it was, they were like a single person in two bodies with two entirely separate personalities and ambitions but fitted together perfectly on a level that no one else could understand, he often thought they were in each other's heads.

Anyita Coyle from the Indian Station also agreed with their reassignment "They would both be a good fit for Atlantis, they possess the gene needed to use Ancient Lantean technology and their aptitude for it rivals that of both Colonel Sheppard and General O'Neill, combined they surpass even them. How will we get someone to Pegasus? The ships we built have been turned over to UTAF."

Greyson heard to tone in her voice, she resented his decision but he didn't care what she thought, what he had done was necessary and it was all part of the plan that he had patiently guiding for a long time and he would not allow it to be derailed.

"_Prometheus II_ will be temporally assigned to Torchwood for the trip to Pegasus and maybe for further trips for the supplies that we need, but I would rather give it back before they ask, it will be used to ferry supplies to Atlantis in the future so we may still get some supplies aboard occasionally" Greyson pondered aloud "We have to be careful, we have some political allies who are helping us for now, but they could turn on us."

"What about Borealis?" Henrietta Cassidy asked, she was from the New Zealand and it had been her Station who had developed the new ion propulsion engines and she was a leading woman in the Institutes development of ship technologies.

"Borealis?" a number of the Heads asked.

"The second City Ship that the Atlantis Expedition discovered" Henrietta explained "From the reports that crossed my desk I believe they have managed to bring the structural integrity to minimum levels but from what I have read the stardrive and inertial damper systems are still damaged, but it is the shield emitters they are struggling with."

"Do you think you can get it working?" Greyson asked her directly trying to think back to the last report about the work on the damaged city, "It would go a long way if we got it off that planet and even more if we got it back to Earth."

"I think it is possible, our knowledge of the technology has improved, the wormhole drive is out of the question but I think I can help with the emitters, I many have to patch in a Asgard variant, it will not be as efficient or strong as Atlantis but it will be workable, it is the damaged star drive which will complicate things, I would need to get a good look at the thing before I could give a more accurate estimate to the city's operational capabilities." She confessed "If you have got us the _Prometheus II_ then we will be able to get almost all of the things we need to get it up and running."

"Very well, I am sending you, the twins and as many engineers and workers as I can manage to get to Pegasus" Greyson stated "I trust that you will get your ducks in a row before you leave?"

"Of course, Marcus is second in command back home and can handle developments while I am away." Henrietta agreed wholeheartedly.

"Director I have some news on your request for the development of a new subsidiary of Trident and the acquisition of the companies you suggested" Anyita said bringing the attention to her which she enjoyed "We can get all three of them for a large cost but we would own the majority and would need to take over the running of the company."

"No, that will be done by someone else." Greyson said firmly "That company will need to carry on with its production of its current units and will need a new CEO who we will liaise with for our own needs. I also want you to start the development of new prototypes of current Earth vehicles making use of the new technologies."

"Do you have a preference of where to start?" she asked.

"Helicopters." He said after some thought, "for the of police forces and the ambulance services."

"It will be done." She said "but we will need additional funds to get a working prototype."

"Get some ideas then come to me for money." Greyson told her sternly she was always out for money but he kept her on a firm leash.

**Black Eye Galaxy – Binary Star System – USS Odyssey**

_Odyssey _was situated over the small moon on the outskirts of the habitable zone of the star system, two teams of the ships ground forces had been suited up and beamed into separate parts of the odd looking ship they had discovered.

The ship was damaged heavily and was leaking radiation from the external engines but according to their findings the hull of the ships prevented the radiation from seeping inside and so the teams were protected.

The power in the ship was almost entirely depleted and life support barely registered so they were suited up with Oxygen canisters like those firefighters wore. The atmosphere in the ship was dry and hot which was odd.

The technology was very different than any examples they had seen used by other races and they didn't want to touch too much without a better understanding of the technology or even the language that it was written on parts.

Two life signs had been detected and they made their way to them and found that they were coming from two different compartments which were locked.

"General Mitchell this is Lieutenant Nelan, I have found the first location." Said the soldier into his radio.

"Copy that. We know that they are humanoid beings, but these might not be so stay sharp." Mitchell responded.

The Lieutenant nodded to his team and they took up positions either side of what passed for a door, P90's held at the ready and the breached the door.

What welcomed them shocked them.

The room was powered, on two of the walls were heating lamps which made it too hot in the room to be comfortable and drew all the moisture from the air. Suspended on chains with a device attached to their face and their lower regions was a man.

A naked old man who had unusual markings like tribal tattoos over his body.

The team medic rushed in once the soldiers were sure there was no obvious threat and began to examine the unresponsive male.

"He looks incredibly old, these devices must sustain him and relieve body wastes." The medic said "I am not sure of his physiology but he does have a pulse although it's abnormal compared to ours."

"Lieutenant Nelan?" Squawked the radios.

"Major Dunham?" Nelan replied.

"My team found the second bio sign." Dunham replied tersely "the room was had four people in it, all dead but this one female and there were signs of a struggle. We also found a hull breach in one of the forward sections."

The first team exchanged looks, they had not found anything like that.

"The breach came from the battle this ship was in?" Nelan asked although he thought he already knew the answer.

"No Sir, the hull was cut open."

There was a long pause, each team was wondering if they were safe aboard this unknown ship or if there were others on the ship _Odyssey_ didn't detect.

The man in the room stirred slightly as the medic looked over him and he began to thrash in terror and tried move but the shakes held him in place.

"Take off that mask." The Lieutenant ordered and they did, the man was still scared but was looking at them oddly, he tried to speak or at least the thought he did but only garbled sounds came from his mouth.

"He could be dehydrated." Said the captain on the team trying to be helpful, "these lights are making me want a drink."

The medic looked reluctant to provide water to her patient but considering the man's condition she didn't think he would live long anyway and as she went to give him the water he drank greedily.

Taking that as a good sign the team passed that information to the others on the ship for their own patient.

The man was not letting up on the offered water but due to his state of health it dripped down his face and across his torso where it touched the tattoos on his body.

As soon as the drop of water touched the blackened area they immediately began to emitted a faint blue-green light.

The medic was fascinated and spilt more of the water onto the man's body which he did not protest at and all of the odd markings glowed when exposed to moisture and as the water touched the skin it's colour began to change from the chalky unhealthy Grey-White to a slightly more pinkish tone.

The man's eyes which had been milky white and on a human would have thought to contain cataracts were clearing too exposing a slit pupil.

"Sir I think that this…. man…" The medic said trying to find the right word "I think he is dehydrated can we get these lamps turned off?"

As the team tried to do this the ship rocked slightly and groaned alarmingly.

"Odyssey this Nelan, what just happened to the ship? Nelan asked alarmed.

"A ship just jumped out of FTL and fired on us and that ship was a small nuke." Mitchell said "We are beaming you out now, attached a beacon to your new friends, we will beam them direct to a holding cell for now."

White light lit up the room and then they team found themselves in one of the two brigs, the alien man had also been beamed and he was looking around in wonder and looked like he was struggling to breath and medical staff poured in to help him.

But he kept looking beseechingly at the medic and kept reaching for her.

Out of curiosity she went to him and he reached for her canteen of water and tried to take it.

The man wanted the water so she complied with his mute request and opened it but rather than drink it he poured it over himself and then held it up to her.

"Why?" She asked

The man was confused he didn't understand their language and he just held up the canteen and tapped it and them himself while he used his other hand to rub the water into his skin.

"I think he is trying to say he needs water" said one of the doctors.

"Why is he doing that?" Said the captain on the team, it just makes his tattoos glow.

The medic tried to take back her bottle but the man refused again and kept gesturing.

The ship shook slightly and they felt the familiar jerk of jumping into hyperspace, they had fled the system.

"Doc, put him in a shower." The Lieutenant ordered "he was in a hot room, his health improves with water, he is telling you what he needs."

The doctors were hesitant to comply so the lieutenant half carried the man out of the room and towards the closest crew showers, water was not rationed aboard this ship due to the matter stream technology but the water was still rationed.

The man did not fight the lieutenant but kept mumbling something that he did not understand the whole way.

Once they entered the shower room the man stopped mumbling and looked around, the room was moist and steam could be seen and the man looked longingly at it, taking it as a good sign the Nelan propped the man against the wall and turned on the shower to slightly warm and the alien pulled himself under the water which covered him entirely and his markings now we're all glowing

The doctors were watching in awe as the old man who had been beamed to the holding cell transformed, the skin changes tones becoming pink and fleshy and it became taught and no longer sagged, the man's hair that had been thin and grey was transformed into thick red hair.

"He looked to be at least ninety years old when we found him, but now he looks like a twenty years old." The head doctor said in wonder, "his species must rely on water like we rely on oxygen."

The man stepped out of the shower on his own, he walked calmly and steadily and looked at them and smiled but then collapsed.

"Take him to the infirmary but restrain him." The Lieutenant said to the doctors, "and under constant observation."

Up on in Cam's office an argument was going on, the sensor operator who had been stationed on the bridge was being chewed out by the commander of the ship.

When Odyssey had been stationary over the moon and damaged ship, the sensor operator had not been paying any attention to it, he instead had been instant messaging through the ships computer to a girl in the engineering bays.

So when a ship dropped out of FTL behind them, they had been unaware of its proximity and the ship had been struck by a nuke directly on the hull. The damage had been minimal due to the low yield of the weapon but it had caused some damage to the ship.

The young officer would be disciplined fully once they were back to Earth, but for now Cam was doing everything he could do not to give in to the urge to place him into an air lock and vent him.

"Go back to your quarters, you will not be setting foot in the bridge from now on, you will be doing maintenance." Cam said finally "If we were back on Earth I would make sure you would not be serve on a ship of the fleet again, but I am stuck with you and your negligence. Now get out of here."

The young officer left quickly and looked to be close to tears not the Cam cared the officer was not fit to wear his uniform.

He was in the middle of writing his captains log of the event when there was a knock on the door and he looked up and saw that Vala, Daniel and Teal'c were standing there.

"Do you require company General Mitchell?" Teal'c asked.

Cam sighed and leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes but beckoned them to join him.

"As Qetesh I saw many of the Jaffa who served her treated much worse." Vala said looking around his office with interest "torture, dismemberment, disfigurement or something shameful. Of course she would occasionally just kill them."

Daniel gave her a reproachful look "Your crew was not meant of a long voyage, they are beginning to crack under the pressure, we have been gone months."

"I know, and we still are not even out of this galaxy!" Cam snapped but apologised straight away. "This is the last system in this galaxy and then we have to traipse across the very large gap between this galaxy and through Ida, Andromeda and Othala."

"Not necessarily." Daniel said "My original estimate of the time it would take was wrong due to the nature of the Cascade, but I have reviewed the star charts and while we will need to follow the corridor out of the galaxy and into the unknown but then we can cut between the three galaxies in a direct path to Earth."

"That will place us in the voids between the galaxies for much longer without respite." Cam pointed out.

"Yes but it will shave off a month maybe two depending on the number of stops." Daniel explained "Sam has checked my root and she agrees this is the best path. The problem is the _Hammond_, it will struggle to keep up with this ship."

It was true, while the _Hammond_ was the most advanced of the Daedalus-Class but it was not as fast as _Odyssey_ since it was equipped with the zpm and Asgard core, while the zpm had been utilised a lot over the years it still had thirty-six percent of its maximum output remaining.

"That should be fine, once we hit the void we should be safe from all threats and we can plough ahead of them and get to Earth before them, they must think we are dead." Cam said thinking about his own family, "Jackson, go to the bridge and get the coordinates programmed into the Navcom and then alter our course and get us home."

Daniel nodded and went to leave but then turned and dragged Vala out, much to her annoyance and they bickered as they left.

**Valhalla Space Station – Medusa Cascade**

The station was situated within the very heart of the cascade, so deep that no sensor could ever detect it due to the disturbances within the multispectral coloured region of space, but the Asgard had overcome that particular problem.

Dotted around the Cascade in two galaxies and in the voids between them and around the Cascade was a series of surveillance satellites that monitored everything around them and relayed them through the network back to the station.

The station was old but when the High Council and a number of the scientists had fled destruction of their home planet aboard the Naglfar science vessel with enough resources and matter stream construction emitters that they had been able to improve the station and had begun to use the stockpiled resources to build a new fleet of ships.

The O'Neill-Class was the most powerful warship the Asgard had ever built and they were building three of them.

Out of nowhere the Asgard had received excactly what they had needed to fix their genetic degradation, they believed it was the work of the Ascended Ancient who had once been their allies, perhaps one had broken the rules and helped them but it had given the Asgard a way to treat their problems and work had begun immediately.

Supreme Commander Thor was in a new body, it was not unlike the others he had used in the last few hundred years but it was stronger and abler than those had been, it would be a gradual process getting used to the superior bodies until they could return to the normal form of the ancient Asgard, a form they had not had for three millennia.

He was happy with their progress, the ships were almost constructed but the internal systems were still to be installed and built but with the new bodies being generated they had more able bodied Asgard to help with the work.

"Supreme Commander Thor." Said an Asgard walking towards Thor who was watching the construction intently.

"What is it Rán?" Thor asked.

"Our satellites have detected two vessels traveling through hyperspace through the Black-Eye Galaxy."

"That is not possible, the civilisations of that galaxies do not have hyperspace capabilities." Thor said blinking at his fellow Asgard.

"The vessels are not of that galaxy, they are that of Earth." Rán said.

Thor didn't say a word, he had his orders he had to have the fleet built before he revealed the duplicity of the Asgard supposed death.

"Keep me updated on their progress, they are a long way from home." Thor ordered.

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Please Review! Added to Favourite and Communities please!

Images of the various classes of ship can be found on my Twitter Account, just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and it will come up!

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	25. Chapter 25

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Twenty-Five**

**Helping Hand**

**Pegasus Galaxy – Reliax System – Space**

The planet of Reliax had once been a pre industrialised world, comparable to Earth in the early years of the Victorian Era, home to a dense population of humans.

Reliax had fallen many generations prior but its people had endured the devastating Wraith culling by hiding in a great cavern beneath a lake on the outskirts of the old city. The Stargate had been buried within the rubble of the old city so the people had been left for hundreds of years and had begun to rebuild.

That was until the Trinity Queen Fleet had arrived in the star system, and the humans below had been entirely wiped out, the planet bombarded and its people culled for food.

Thirteen hives and twenty cruisers now patrolled the system while the Wraith were on the planet doing who knows what, and that was why Atlantis wanted to find out what was happening and so they had sent the _Daedalus_ and the Criselion of the Traveller Fleet to investigate.

Two hyperspace windows opened behind the Reliax Systems sun to avoid being detected and as they appeared in real space they broadened their sensor sensitivity to maximum to try and find out where all of the ships were.

Colonel Caldwell was sat in his command chair aboard Daedalus and was waiting for the outcome of the scan.

"The Wraith fleets are scattered throughout the system." The sensor operator reported. "but six of the cruisers are in a geosynchronous orbit above the planet.

"Towlan" Caldwell called opening a channel to the Criselion

"Do you have a plan?" Towlan asked "I do not want to risk the destruction of my vessel, there seem to many for us to fight."

Caldwell nodded, he knew the travellers did not like to risk their small number of ships but he did not want to risk his own ship either.

"We should make this a hit and run operation, a short jump into hyperspace into the middle of the fleet, we strike hard and fast before jumping back into hyperspace." Caldwell ordered "We can try at another run in an hour or so but we need to take a shot at them."

Towlan nodded agreeing with the plan, "You know that my ships weapons will not do much damage to the Hives, I will target only the Cruisers."

"If you can get a shot on the Hives Hyperdrives then take it." Caldwell said directly, "If we can render them useless then it will make it easier for us to come back and finish them."

Towlan reluctantly agreed and they terminated their communications and manoeuvred away from sun in order to create the room they needed for the jump to hyperspace.

_Daedalus_ poured power into the hyperdrive and it ripped open a distortion in the fabric of the space and jumped into the breach.

The swirling blue vortex of hyperspace lasted mere seconds and then they dropped out into the very center of the system surrounded by enemy ships.

"Take evasive manoeuvres" Caldwell ordered, "Keep us moving and fire with all batteries at the closest ships and then move on."

Wraith ships were slow to respond having not detected their arrival and five shots of the _Daedalus' _Asgard plasma beam weapons had struck the closest hive reducing it to slag and debris before striking the next.

The _Criselion_ had also made the jump and its red energy bolts flew out rapidly striking the cruisers and causing untold damage and they managed to destroy two before the first Wraith weapons fire hit them.

_Daedalus_ was targeted first by the enemy ships as they knew that the small compact ship which spat deadly beams of white hot plasma that devastated the hives were the deadlier of the enemy ships and they concentrated their fire on the ship and the ships shields blossomed under the fire.

"Report." Caldwell ordered.

"Shields are holding at Ninety-One Percent Sir." The officer reported, "We are drawing on the power of the zpm now."

"Good." Caldwell said and he saw that there was an oncoming wave of darts "activate all railgun batteries, target those darts before they can begin kamikaze runs at us, and warn _Criselion_."

The darts pursued the _Daedalus_ as it twisted and turned and banked around to avoid weapons fire and also gaining better angles to strike at the Wraith, but the darts were nimble and followed easily.

"Hold of all F302 launches." Caldwell ordered and he turned to the weapons officer "Launch one of the new missiles, I want to see if it works."

The new missile has been built on Atlantis, the principle of it was to combat wraith darts as they swarmed, the missile contained a large number of smaller projectiles that would break away from the main missile and home in on enemy ships, they were very small but their yield was enough to destroy a Dart.

On top of _Daedalus'_ bow one of the missile silos opened and launched the black missile. It immediately targeted the Darts that were pursuing them and its afterburner accelerated it towards them, before cutting out and then the missile broke apart leaving one hundred smaller tubes in the air.

Each tube was had a small thruster which enabled it to move and they created a defensive net that was invisible in space, but as the darts closed in they moved towards them and once in range they exploded and destroyed almost half of the wave of Darts.

_Daedalus_ was not the most manoeuvrable of ships or overly fast but it pack one hell of a punch and they had been able to destroy four hives and heavily damage two others, the _Criselion_ had destroyed four cruisers and possible crippled one hive.

"_Criselion_ is reporting shield strain sir." Said the navigation officer.

"Tell them to jump clear to the rendezvous point." Caldwell ordered "What our shield strength?"

"We are down to seventy percent." An officer reported "But they are concentrating on us now, we cannot survive much longer."

"Okay..." Caldwell said but was stopped as the ship shook badly "What the hell was that!"

"We have been rammed by one of the damaged cruisers, it just reduced our shield strength to fifty-one percent" the officer exclaimed "Sir what are you orders."

"get us out of here." Caldwell said, he couldn't see another way "Keep firing all batteries, we will make them regret coming to this system."

The plasma beams shot out from the ship and penetrated Hives in quick succession, but they were not at full strength as they were trying to find a way to flee, the Wraith had realised their plan and had converged on them, blocking all paths of escape.

"Sir we cannot jump to hyperspace; they are blocking us." The navigation officer said alarmed.

"Divert all available power from secondary systems to weapons and shields, we are going to need them." Caldwell said quickly, "We are going to have to clear a path out of this mess, find the path which will give us the least resistance and then we will cut our way through."

The course was set but the Wraith were not fools, they realised what they were doing and the weapons fire increased tenfold.

Sparks shot out from panels aboard the bridge from the onslaught of weapons fire and the crew were thrown around from the turbulence.

The Asgard weapons were cutting through the enemy vessels, as the rail guns spat out weapons fire cutting down the Darts, and they opened up all missile silos in order to clear the path but the darts were able to stop the missiles and the colonel began to think he had made a critical mistake,

"Sir I have just detected a hyperspace window open and I am detecting another ship in hyperspace heading towards us." Someone shouted.

Caldwell bit back a sharp remark, he had not known more Wraith Vessels had been near.

Suddenly red bolts of energy impacted the ships in Daedalus' path.

"Sir! It's the _Criselion_ and _Uonos_!" said the Major who was sat to his right "They have opened fire on the ships, the fleet is dividing their attention."

"Punch us through this blockade, this is the distraction that we need." Caldwell said his mood improved.

"Sir, hyperspace window is forming above us!" the Major said "it is broadcasting IFF."

"Colonel Caldwell, this is Captain Drake of _Prometheus II_" came a voice over the internal communication system "We and your companions will cover you while you jump to hyperspace."

Caldwell didn't need telling twice, he had wondered where the ship had come from until he saw two bright blue lances of plasma shoot down from above and impact the Hive in front of them, they were from Earth and they were helping.

"Give me full Sublight, divert ZPM power to shields and engines and the ships reactors can power weapons." Caldwell ordered, he knew that the weapons strength would be reduced but now they needed to escape.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Hyperspace – Prometheus II**

_Prometheus II_ was a small ship but she was faster than she looked, she had set out on the long voyage to the Pegasus Galaxy, she was captained by Ryan Drake, who had been a ship captain in the British Navy before being drafted into the UTAF as part of the new unified military and had been assigned to the ship for its current mission.

Drake had been picked as he had ties to the Institute, his father having worked for them before he died in the Ambush of the _Elizabeth II. _

They had been making good time crossing between the galaxies, but had been delayed due to a secondary mission of removing the gates from the now redundant gate bridge, it created a direct path between the galaxies and Homeworld Command wanted it removed.

Asgard Beaming technology was used to beam each gate aboard the ship and was then stored in a data crystal to be reconstituted at a later point in time, they had been the middle of removing the last space gate in the path of the Pegasus Galaxy when they had detected a vessel in hyperspace travelling towards another.

The ships computer recognised the ships as those that were of the Travellers, and knowing that they were a part of the Lantean society they had jumped to hyperspace to find out what they were doing.

When the ship dropped out of hyperspace they saw that one of the ships looked to have been in a battle.

They had opened a channel to the ships to begin contact and the captains reported that the Daedalus was in trouble and was in the middle of a Wraith fleet, Drake had immediately ordered that they return and help.

Both Traveller captains had been reluctant to follow his orders as they did not operate under his authority, but they had agreed as they would be acting only as a distraction.

Drake let the Generational Ships jump first, and then a few minutes later had his vessel jump to hyperspace after them.

When they arrived in the system Drake saw the peril the _Daedalus_ was in and realised they were unable to escape so they powered their weapons and communicated to their sister ship.

It took five minutes but eventually both Earth ships had been able to create a path for the Daedalus to escape through and then were able to make the jump to hyperspace, once they were aware the generational ships also jumped away.

"Beam our horizon weapons into the centre of that fleet, burn them all." Drake ordered, "and get us out of here."

The Horizon weapon was a large package of naquadah and Naquadria war heads infused with various enhancing agents that would create an explosion that could be mistake for a second sun in the system.

The package was beamed directly into the centre of the ships they were trying to pursue them, the darts were sent to intercept as the ships began to move away but it was too late the package exploaded and slit into seven sections, each following a separate ship before detonating.

Drake did not hang around find out what damage it did and they set a course for Atlantis and jumped into hyperspace.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis **

John had been in the middle of a council meeting discussing the construction proposals for the Lantean ship yard, they were currently stockpiling the necessary materials and were planning what the docks would look like and how they would work.

The doors to the council chambers swivelled open and revealed chuck standing there.

"What is it?" John asked "Has Colonel Caldwell reported back?"

"He has, and there has been a development you will want to see." Chuck said.

Bewildered the council followed Chuck up to operations where Amelia was talking with the Colonel.

"Colonel." John said seeing the commander of his Lantean Defence fleet.

"Colonel." Caldwell said respectfully.

John looked at what was happening on the bridge and it was clear to him that the battle may not have gone well.

"What do you have to report?"

"We gave a hard blow to the Wraith, both myself and _Criselion _were able to escape." He reported "but we owe that survival to the another."

"What other?" John asked

"It looks like Earth has sent a new ship to help us, they and _Uonos_ arrived in the nick of time to save us from the Wraith." Caldwell said frowning, "We have had to drop out of hyperspace in order to carry out some minor repairs, but they will be heading straight for you."

"Where are you now Colonel?" John asked

"We are just outside a system with a gate, it is not one I believe we have explored but from what the sensors can tell from this far out, it is inhabited." Caldwell said as he read through a report he was given.

"Get back here as soon as you can, I will want to have a full report of this battle." John told him firmly "Who is the captain of the vessel?"

"Captain Drake." Caldwell said "and the ship is called _Prometheus II_."

An hour passed and the Atlantis long range sensors followed the path three ships were taking, which led them directly to the city.

Three hyperspace windows opened over the planet revealing two very different classes of ship, the _Criselion _descended into the atmosphere immediately while the _Uonos_ remained in orbit along with the _Prometheus II_.

"Captain Drake of the Prometheus II this is High Councillor John Sheppard of Lantea." John said in a stern voice.

The screen in the control room activated bringing a visual link online.

"We receive you Atlantis." He replied, "I bring you tidings from General O'Neill and from Earth and we have come to help you here in Pegasus, do we have permission to land?"

John exchanged a look with Rodney and Teyla, "Sure, land on one of the piers, I will warn you though captain there will be security checks carried out, the last time a vessel from your nation arrived here it a member of the crew tried to kill one of the members of my expedition."

Drake looked a bit awkward for a moment and looked passed the screen to something the Atlantis personnel couldn't see "I am aware of what happened with Elizabeth II was last here, I come with news of Earth and it is about time you were brought into the loop. We will comply with any security checks you wish."

The ship began to descend into the upper atmosphere and it began a gradual decent using its anti-gravity Wave Generator which pulsed under the ship and it created no friction within the atmosphere before it was piloted towards the city.

Once the ship was on the pier the crew were detained apart from the three most superior members, Captain Ryan Drake and Frederick and Matthew Hartman who were escorted up into the city.

The twins were being stared at openly, most had known "Gordon Matthews" when he had lived in the city, but now they were two men who looked just like him.

As they arrived in the control tower they were immediately accosted by security teams with Wraith Stunners.

"What is the meaning of this?" Frederick said taking a step in front of his brother "Sheppard we are here to help."

"Gordon?" John questioned shocked.

"Ah I see why you would be confused." Matthew said shrugging off his brothers protective arm "I am Matthew Hartman, this idiot here is my twin brother Frederick who was once on this city."

John took this in his stride and gestured for them to go into the briefing room where they were settled.

"You are not Gordon?" he asked the brothers not sure which was which.

"I was the man who you came to know as Gordon Matthews." Frederick said sheepishly "I was placed here by my employers to keep an eye on you. I am Frederick Hartman but my consciousness was supressed by the imprint of my brothers mind, I meant no harm to you or the city."

"We found a photograph on the one who attacked you, a picture of you in military uniform." John pointed out, he noticed that Frederick was obviously military now, he could tell from the way he had examined the room.

"Aye, that was me, a picture from my time in the Middle East, we met once on a US-UK join operation." Frederick said smiling "I killed the assailant as he was there to kill me, I had no choice."

"Who was he?" John asked pointedly, "And how are you here now? You were Aboard the Elizabeth II and it was destroyed."

"He was a member of the Lucian Alliance sent here to kill me." Frederick said "I had made an enemy as I had been investigating the IOA for six months before I came here. The ship survived that ambush Colonel, and it because it survived that the truth was uncovered."

"Truth?" Teyla asked "What truth is that?"

The three men exchanged looks and then revealed what had happened on Earth, how the IOA had betrayed the planet and the nature of the Alliances advances. Of the new state of world defence and gate Alliance, they even told him of Torchwood.

"So is O'Neill still charge?" John asked.

"He remains in charge of Homeworld Command and is the head of the UTAF." Drake replied, "That reminds me, the General wanted me to tell you to contact the SGC when you get a moment. It is time that Atlantis opens its gate to Earth and returns the alliance between you both."

John was caught short by his words and immediately his faced hardened.

But Drake held up a hand forestalling him.

"General O'Neill has the upmost respect for what you have built here Sheppard, however this city and planet are by extension sovereign territory of Earth." Drake said delicately he then turned to Teyla and Larrin "I have not got the authority to promise you or your peoples anything, but I can say that the Athosians and Travellers will be allies of Earth and will always have a place here, Earth will not forget all you have done for us out here."

"You do realise as part of the alliance between my people and the High Councillor we were to have a shipyard." Larrin said haughtily.

Drake nodded but smiled "I do know that and that is one of the reasons that we are here."

"What do you mean?" John asked "You are here to help us with the construction of the ship yard?"

"One of the many things on our agenda." Frederick told them, "The Institute is here to help you, we can help with the construction of the shipyard here on Lantea, but we are also here to help with your ongoing efforts to repair Borealis."

"What will you need from us?" John asked "Your Institute must want something in return, your director wouldn't do this just out of the kindness of his heart."

Frederick smiled darkly "No he didn't, there of course will be political motives but no there is only one thing we will require from you Councillor. Would it be possible for the Institute to take up in one of your city towers?"

John exchanged looks with his fellow council members, and sat quietly for a moment.

"I can agree on principle." John said looking to Rodney "Any areas you can suggest Rodney."

Rodney pulled out his tablet and went through city schematics "In the outer section of the south pier, one of the towers is vacant, it has a number of labs and empty space, it also has some residential quarters but they are not overly large."

"We do not need a large space Councillor" Matthew said reassuringly "Torchwood's presence here is only to assist you where we can. Torchwood operates to protect those that fall under its protectorate mandate, many of the members of your expedition hail from those countries who we protect, we have an obligation to those people."

"My brother is right." Frederick agreed, "We are not here to interfere with your running of this city, most of the time you will not even know we are here, however we will help where we can and offer what assistance you might require."

"Very well." John said "Rodney will show you to the tower which will be yours, once your people have been cleared by my security teams they can be shown to their quarters."

"Thank you Councillor." Drake said happily "But if you do not mind I would like to begin our mission to help with Borealis as soon as possible, your teams are welcome aboard Prometheus II while we travel."

"No." John said firmly, "You may leave in two hours after your crew is checked, and I will also need to check with the SGC that your story is true."

Drake did not look happy but he understood, he left to get back to his ship while Rodney left with Matthew to show him the tower which would be theirs.

"Sheppard, you know that I was in the military, but that is in my past, I do not wish for that life any longer." Frederick said "I turned away from that life after what I saw in the middle east."

"So why were you sent here?" John asked as they walked "When you pretended to be Gordon Matthews."

"My brother is the tech genius, it comes to him naturally." Frederick explained "I was a very good soldier but something happened which changed me, I walked away from that life and went towards history and archelogy."

"So the stun weapons you were designing…" John said thinking aloud.

"That came from my brothers imprint, my subconscious was what drove me to do all the research I did while I was on the city." Frederick said shrugging "The tech we used was new still in development, I theorised that it is the fight or flight response that broke the imprint allowing my true self to break through but due to the technology I fell into a coma while the imprint reinserted itself."

"You know it's odd." John said looking at him carefully "every time look at you I remember the young kid who was once a member of my expedition, but looking at you now I cannot help but wonder just who you are."

"I am a friend Sheppard, trust in that." Frederick said and he walked away.

John watched him walk with wonder before turning to Chuck and Amelia, "Dial the SGC, I think its time to mend fences and without the threat of them being kicked down."

"Sir?" Amelia said in question.

"I will explain later, but I want to confirm some things with Earth first." John told her, "Now let's see what is happening in a galaxy far far away."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Vulcia – Temple of Grace **

Beth had been at the temple for seven months and she found the work so simple and the life so easy she often found herself half forgetting that she couldn't remember who she actually was.

She would remember flashes and small bits and pieces, she remembered her parents and things from when she was a child, she also remembered a man, a man she cared for and one she felt she had not seen in a long time.

The sisters were had finished their harvest as had their brothers from the second temple and it had been a bountiful harvest and one that the sisters and brothers had been happy to have as it gave them more to trade with the Pilgrims who were due to arrive that day.

"Mother Superior why are we placing the harvest here?" Beth asked as they moved the harvest in crates that the pilgrims preferred, made of metal and sealed with locks. "There are not from the Temple."

"No child, these crates were gifted to us by the Pilgrims, they are sturdier than our wooden crates." She explained "And we place them here as this is where they will be. These open plains are where we shall meet as we have for generations."

"But how, there is no water?" Beth pointed out "how will their ships dock?

"You shall see Child, sometimes things are beyond comprehension." Mother said quietly "just like your memory, all shall be revealed in time."

They continued with their work for over an hour when a loud thunderous noise echoed over the valley, and the sisters all looked up happily.

"What is that?" Beth asked startled.

"The Pilgrims have arrived." Said one of the sisters "Look they come in their ships."

Above them two bright fireballs began to appear through the clouds, the sight of them made Beth fear for her life for a moment before she looked at them carefully, she noticed that the fireballs were slowing down and the flames dissipated and revealed two large metal constructs.

"Ships." Beth whispered "Space ships."

"These are the pilgrim's child." The Mother said, beckoning, "Come you should see."

The ships descended gradually and landed on the plains and the air vibrated from the power of engines and it was almost deafening before the power was cut. Once they had landed bulkheads were opened and out stepped their people who were welcomed by the sisters and brothers, some of them even seemed to know each other.

"Mother Superior, you have a bountiful harvest" said a woman who looked at the crates around them "Your yield is even better than last year."

"Litilia, it is always good to see you." Mother superior said happily but she looked at the ships in confusion "Why so few of you this year, have some of you fallen?"

"Fear not Mother" she replied placing a hand of comfort on her arm "Some of my people have found a place they can call home, we can still take your harvest and we have the medical supplies for your payment, my people will be happy to have the extra fresh food."

"Why did you not stay with your people?" the Mother asked surprised "You always seemed to close."

"We did not want to settle; we prefer to travel the stars." Litilia said sadly "it is all that we know."

Beth came forward "You travel the stars?" she asked with interest.

"Yes." Litilia said and she pointed at the ships "These ships do not travel the oceans they travel between stars and planets."

"Star travel?" Beth said in wonder stepping passed them and looking at the ships "You travel throughout Pegasus?"

"Pegasus?" Mother Superior asked not understanding the word.

"We do." Blinked Litilia surprised by her knowledge "How do you know the name of this galaxy, most do not."

"I don't know, it just came to me." She replied helplessly.

"Beth here was sent to us, she does not remember who she once was." The Mother explained "Do you know of the Pilgrims ways and you one of them"

"No" Beth said without thinking "No I am not of their people." She wans't sure how she knew but they were not her people."

"What is this Pegasus?" the Mother asked "I have not heard of this before, is it a place?"

"No" Litlia said looking at Beth "Do you know?"

"Its…" Beth said but she couldn't recall what it was, she just knew the name. "I do not know, I just know it is the right word."

"Interesting, Mother you have told me stories of these occurrences here" Litilia said frowning "I always thought they were stories that you told travellers to make this place mysterious."

"No child, they are all true." The Mother told her and she frowned looking at her critically "What have you got to trade for our food this year?"

"Medicines and other things you might have need of." She said and she turned and summoned one of her crew over with a case "These medicines are far more potent than the ones we usually trade with you, I will leave you with strict instructions for their use."

She handed over a small cardboard box "This box alone contains a small pill that is capable of fending of illness and infection."

Beth took the box and across the front was a word "Amoxicillin?" she said looking at it.

"You read Lantean?" Litilia said surprised.

"What is Lantean?" she asked handing the box to the Mother Superior.

"It is the language of the people who we obtained our medicine from. Litilia said and she pulled out a bottle from within the case, "Can you read this?"

"Morphine?" Beth asked unsure if she was correct.

"Your knowledge is interesting. Tell me what do you know of Atlantis or Earth?" Litilia asked directly "You have knowledge that many do not, and I only know of one people that can read Lantean."

"Do you know me?" Beth asked in wonder. "I don't know of these places, where are they?"

Litilia looked at her carefully and then smirked "Tell you what, my ship has a few more stops on our travels but eventually we are bound for Lantea to see my others of my people, and I think you might find answers there. For now, you can help my crew with some of things we need translated, Phelan, my ships doctor will have use for you too."

"But I..." Beth hesitated not knowing what to say.

"I told you once the stories of those that fell before you, those cast from the heavens to the Temples of Grace and Light, I told you that some stayed but most left to go on their own crusades." The Mother superior said stepping away "You should go, a path has appeared for you to take, now go, you will find your answers, but first you must take the first step on that journey."

"I will go Mother and I must thank you for all you have done." Beth said sincerely.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! I want to know what you think!

Images of the various classes of ship can be found on my Twitter Account, just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and it will come up!

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty-Six **

**Consolidation **

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – Nevada Area 51 **

The Valliant.

The mobile headquarters for Homeworld Command that would protect the Earth from all hostile Alien threats.

It was a bold claim and one that General O'Neill was sceptical about, he had been trying to get answers from the Institute regarding the vessel but they had chosen to ignore him, only telling him the status of its construction and estimated delivery dates.

Today however was the day that vessel arrived and Jack had been told that it would arrive over Nevada and he was to meet them there for his first good look at her.

Jack had been irked by the request he travel to Nevada but it gave him a chance to have a look around Area 51 and see what they were currently developing and check on the status of the most recent construction of two 304 class ships.

Earth's Fleet was being put to great use in their war against the Lucian Alliance, Jack had used the fleet to strike at them directly. Five Daedalus-Class ships and the _Ares _had been sent out with a number of targets that the FJN and Tok'ra intelligence had provided and they had successfully destroyed all the infrastructures on a shipyard planet that had once been part of Sokar's domain and had struck five farming planets and even ambushed two portions of their fleet weakening Alliance assets.

He often found that the Institute were a thorn in his side, and though he would never admit it, he was glad that they had intervened, he had more resources than ever, and with the creation of the UTAF and removal of the IOA he now could actively wage war on the Alliance.

The IOA was still a sticking point of International opinion, with so many views and opinions but of course own vendettas clouding the process. Some nations were of the opinion that the IOA duplicity to betray the planet should be covered up and hidden and never become public knowledge, others wanted swift justice, while others were not sure that the current systems of law and punishment were enough to truly convict them.

Jack had been involved in a number of these meetings, and the World Council had asked his opinion on the subject, he told them that as this was the start of a new portion of Earth's history do they really want to start it was something in the grey, the IOA had to be severely punished and convicted, and if they thought they could do a cover up they were mistaken as the entire meeting where the Institute had revealed the IOA plot had been recorded aboard the Ares, for the purpose of transparency and for Public Disclosure.

The Politics involved with the IOA trials was something that Jack truly tried to distance himself from, it was a very dirty area and one he tried to keep his hands clean of. His job was to protect the Earth, but a small part of him knew he had to keep an eye on the situation as the situation had the possibility of destroying everything they were trying to build before it even started.

Of course the real problem with the IOA was that at the height of their power, they had been incredibly influential and connected, even today they did not know which pies that had a finger in or who else was in league with them. It was Jacks opinion that many politicians had been in league with them and they would try and prevent their own involvement being discovered or their might be a rescue attempt of certain key IOA members.

Area 51 still functioned as the research and development site into new alien influenced technologies, and the UTAF was channelling funds to them for the development of weapons and defence technology.

The Institute had been able to develop uncut tailed by the IOA and had developed marvels of technology, many of which were developed due to examples and research once done in Area 51 or from data sent from Atlantis.

It was hoped that with more funding and no curtailing of their actions they would now start to see further leaps in technology and innovation.

The Reverse-Engineered Lantean Control Chair that had been built by the Atlantis engineers was still installed on the Base, but the Institute had told them that the Valliant would require it, so teams were dismantling it and making it ready for transport.

The chair was quite impressive, it was unlike the original and it was clearly made on Earth, but the base technology was from the original design, it was only the first generation of the chair and Jack wondered if the Atlantis scientists had made any progress on the next chair.

The chair and the transmitters were all that were required to power and control the Drone weapons that were stored down in Antarctica, with the range of the chairs control covering the entire planet and some distance into space, although it was known that the range was much less compared to the original chair and transmitters.

With time to spare Jack ended to inspection of the military base, the scientists and researchers never seemed to understand that he hated the techno-babble they spoke and just wanted the bottom line and his questions answered with simple uncomplicated responses and always left him with a dull throb in his head.

A military vehicle was waiting for him outside and he made his way to it where he was met by Colonel Paul Davis who had been transferred into the UTAF and now acted as their liaison with the US Department of Defence at the Pentagon.

"Good morning General" Paul said formally to his superior officer which Jack waived away as they entered the vehicle, "Control have said that the ship has entered our System and its travelling towards Earth."

"Good to know, shame they couldn't have arrived earlier and got me out of that inspection." Jack nodded and he knew his irritation was heard in his voice.

Paul smirked knowing Jack well from their encounters over the years, "How are the next 304's?"

"They should be both completed within the next four months, I am wondering if we cannot have some of the new Institute advances incorporated to the design, I will need to speak to Greyson about it." Jack told him thinking of the energy-pulse weapons the _Prometheus II_, _Majestic_ and _Ares_ were equipped with.

"Why do we have to meet them out here anyway?" Jack wondered aloud, "We know they have beaming technologies, they used it when the abducted me, this vessel should have it surely?"

"I believe so Sir." Paul replied trying to hide his smirk "But that Director Greyson does seem to liked dramatic entrances and revelations."

Jack grunted, he couldn't deny that, especially as the mysterious Director only did that to garner more support and political clout.

The radio in the car crackled.

"General O'Neill, this is Officer Franklin aboard the _Valliant, _we are just entering the atmosphere so you shall get your first view of your new headquarters in just a few minutes."

Jack rolled his eyes and they stepped out of the car and looked up at the sky for any sign of the ship, but it was impossible because of the bright sunlight that forced them to shield their eyes and then there was a low whirling noise from above and then the sun was blotted out.

Above them, descending slowly was a structure that grew larger and larger as it lowered its altitude, as it got closer they could see four large sublight engines lit with a white light as they controlled the descent but the underside was a mass of hull and other components that created the structure that it would support above.

"That's the _Valiant_ Sir?" Paul asked startled by its size.

"It's much larger than I thought it would be too." Jack told him shrugging "but it is a mobile headquarters with enough room to house three squadrons of F302's, the offices of Homeworld Command, World Council Chambers and the United Nations."

The structure of the hull underneath the vessel was much clearer now, the engines were just larger versions of the sublight engines used on the Daedalus-Class, the hull was a composite of the same elements used aboard the Ares and it showed no signs of plating or welding and looked to be a solid whole, a number of weapons torrents dotted the underside but were docked within their domes and along the long straight sections of the hull blue light sprang out from the Anti-gravity drives.

The noise from the engines was loud but as the anti-gravity drive powered up and took over the engines powered down reducing the noise to almost unperceivable, and the vessel hovered just above them, obscuring the sun and placing them within its shadow.

"General, we will activate the cloak now sir." Officer Franklin reported, "We have achieved stable atmospheric flight."

The cloaking mechanism activated and the ship disappeared from sight and all noise from the ship was also rendered inert.

A bright white light and chime signalled that they had been locked onto by the Asgard Transporter technology, and then they appeared within the bridge of the ship.

The Operations Room was a circular room with consoles and stations in the centre and sunken into the floor with walkways encircling them and further stations higher, surrounding this were very large observation Windows that allowed for a full three hundred and sixty degrees' view of everything surrounding the vessel,

There number of people at the stations was large, maybe forty people were manning the Operations Room controlling the ship that would in the future protect the Earth, and they didn't seem to find it very hard and worked content lay and ignored the visitors.

"General O'Neill" said an amused voice from behind them.

Two men stood there, one of whom was very familiar to Jack.

"Greyson, I am surprised to find you aboard." Jack remarked dryly, "Aren't you supposed to be busy planning another Coup."

"Well if the intelligence agencies were to be believed I would currently be in Afghanistan recruiting for my army." Greyson laughed, "No I am merely here to see the handover of this mobile platform, I am sure you will make good use of it."

"Feels a bit too open, doesn't feel safe." Paul voiced looking around the room with apprehension, "this is very different to current ships in the fleet."

Greyson frowned at him but nodded "It is very different, this is not a ship of the Fleet, it doesn't even have a hyperdrive. This is an airborne platform for Homeworld Command, operating in International territory for the betterment of our race and planet. This room is one of the most well protected, those windows are very thick and are protected by additional shielding, and as a further precaution are equipped with protective bulkheads that can be lowered if necessary.

"How ready is the vessel?" Jack asked "Battle ready?"

"Yes General." Greyson nodded, "The Dome above us is ready to have the Control Chair installed into it. We have equipped this vessel with twenty pulse-canon turrets, twenty heavy rail gun positions and four Asgard plasma beam batteries."

"I suppose you could say she is one well-endowed Lady" Jack commented poking over it "Will the chair be able control the drone storage in Antarctica?"

"Yes, no matter where you have this ship within the atmosphere it shall still be able to control the drones, and will also work while in orbit." He told him pulling out a tablet, "this vessel is equipped with everything that we promised you. Now if you would please place you hand on this I can assign you as Commander of the vessel, giving you full untethered access to everything it has to offer."

Jack did as requested and placed his hand on the tablet, and then had his eyes scanned. A picture of him was displayed and the transfer was processed.

"That is it then I am done here." Greyson told him and he handed him the tablet, "Enjoy your new headquarters General."

The director of the annoying Institute went to walk away but Jack stopped him.

"Hey now! What about staff and learning how to use this bird?" Jack demanded

Greyson turned and regarded him smirking "Well General I would suggest you get some of your staff here soon, as well as some of your military personnel, you have my people here for a week, and then I want them back."

"Fine" Jack said rolling his eyes, "How will you be getting off this ship, do you require us to beam you somewhere?"

"I have my personal ship waiting for me on the deck, Good luck and please remember, if you break this ship your replacement will be constructed at your own expense, not mine."

Greyson left very quickly not hanging around any longer than he had to.

"You know I still don't know what that guys deal is." Jack said annoyed, the man could be helpful at times but other times he really was a mystery. Jack turned to the assembled staff at their stations, "Okay, I want this bird high in the sky, get us to Washington, I have staff to collect."

"General, do we get to have a look around?" Paul asked with great interest, "this vessel is impressive, how did they get it here anyway?"

O'Neill asked one of the Torchwood Officers to show them around and they began to walk out of the Operations Room, "It was brought to Earth using the tractor beam of the _Ares. _Not sure how I feel about it not having a hyperdrive."

"Well if this facility had a hyperdrive we could use it as a vessel to fight in other systems, but it was designed only to work as a mobile defence platform within boundaries of a solitary planet." Paul speculated, "but this should ease international relations, this is a ship with no ties to a sovereign state."

Jack agreed, and he was sure that was why the Institute had it built, they especially did want a unified defence for the planet, even while they themselves remained apart. They passed a long window which overlooked the carrier and they could see the F302 run ways.

"You know this reminds of a ship from a comic, I wonder if the designer didn't draw inspiration from there."

Paul smiled "Well we all get inspiration from somewhere."

The runways themselves and the main circular structure that held the bridge and dome formed the symbol of Earth, and Jack found it impressive, it was a statement, this was a ship of the United Terran people and it would protect them.

**Galactic Void – USS George Hammond**

The course they had plotted to get them home was one of the most direct paths they could take, they were traveling through a very large corridor that started from the very distant edge of the Blackeye Galaxy where the Medusa Cascade ended, they skirted the outer rim of the Andromeda Galaxy and took a path through the very void of universe where no galaxy of star systems could be found.

The Othala and Ida galaxies were off to one side thousands of light years away and to the other side was a void where no galaxy could be found for millions of light years, but this path led directly to the Milky Way.

They were halfway through having left the Andromeda outer rim two weeks prior and when they dropped out where surrounded by nothing. It was just an empty area of space and it made the crew feel incredibly small and insignificant in the grander scheme of the universe.

Sam had tried to keep the crew motivated but morale was wearing thin and she had been forced to lock three airmen in the brig for disorderly conduct. She wondered how the Destiny Expedition, a team of civilians, scientists and military personnel had been able to survive and adapt, just under two years ago they had entered stasis, but even now while they slept she marvelled at the spirit of those people.

She knew that Earth needed to find a way to get those people home, and she had tried to find a way herself but no matter what simulations she created she could not find a way to reach them, the power requirements to gate to Destiny was impossible to reach without the use of a Naquadria-Planet but finding such a planet would be an incredibly impossible feat.

Instead she turned her attention away from gate travel, it was the fastest and most direct way of getting to the ship but perhaps it wasn't the only way.

Travel through space in hyperspace was not the most efficient way, or at least compared to wormhole technology, but it was more reliable and the power requirements were not as immense.

The Hammond as the most advanced examples of the Earth Fleet could theoretically travel through hyperspace and reach Destiny in three years, but the ship would not reach the Destiny as its systems would fail after only a year.

Sam had a copy of the Asgard simulation software aboard Odyssey transferred into the Hammond Computer and got to work trying to create a design for an improvised ship that could reach Destiny in order to help the expedition.

The main issue was power.

To achieve the necessary level of travel they would require powerful engines that could propel the ship much faster than current Earth vessels and travel through hyperspace for a greater duration. Current power generation supplies by naquadah engines was inadequate and even the subspace capacitor she and Rodney had designed fell short by a large margin due to the ships inefficiency.

Asgard vessels were among the most powerful and efficient ships that Sam had ever seen, second only to those of the Ancient Lanteans. Both examples of ship design wasted no power or were designed to operate at optimum efficiency and potency.

Frustrated with her lack of progress she just stared at a projection looking for inspiration of how to do what seemed impossible.

"What are you doing?" Vala asked when she came to visit her.

"Trying to do the impossible." Sam shrugged sounding resigned, she wondered if this was how she had been in the alternate time line aboard Odyssey when they were stuck in a time dilation field.

"Well you always seem to manage that Samantha" Vala told her and jumped up onto a table and sat eating a bag of crisps contently not caring that she was sitting on important documents and logs.

"I am trying to keep busy so I don't go stir crazy." Sam told her, she was jealous that Vala didn't even seem to be fazed by their entire experience of being thrown millions of light years away and taking a slow route home.

"We all do what we must." Vala shrugged and she smiled darkly "I annoy my Daniel and try to make him blush, Teal'c fights all of your crew and is teaching them Jaffa fighting techniques, Daniel buries himself in the databases and his research."

"I have noticed." Sam smiled fondly, she was secretly very happy they were all together, they were like her family and she had lost some of her friends over the years of the Stargate program and she had learnt to cherish every moment. "My problem is I only have one mind, as much as I hate to say it I could use the help of Rodney McKay."

"Oh the whiny man who has the fear of yellow sour fruit things your planet grows." She said remembering her time on Atlantis, "Mitchell once said he wanted to shove one of those things down the over eager scientists throat if he stared at your breast one more time.

Sam snorted, McKay could be incredibly sexist and rude but she was fond of him, besides he was with Jenifer now and he had calmed down, if only a little.

"So what is the problem?" Vala asked as she scooped out the last of her crisps and pointing to the projection.

"No vessel even with any upgrades and advances I can think of would be able to reach Destiny, they could reach it in theory but due to system sustainability they would fail before reaching the ship." Sam told her, "Only Asgard Beliskner and O'Neil Class ships could make the journey, and maybe an Ancient Lantean Aurora-Class but they would require modification as I am not aware of Ancient Intergalactic hyperdrive capabilities."

"Well why not design a theoretical ship using technology from each ship, even if you cannot replicate it or build it. You will know what technology you need to invent before it would then be possible." Vala shrugged, "That alone should keep you very busy and give me time to work on Daniel."

Sam frowned, she had not thought to do that. But she raised a very good point.

Turning back to the terminal in front of her she brought up the specifications of the Auror-class ship and stripped it bare so that it was merely just a shell and began to create a concept ship that while they couldn't construct gave them avenues of future development needs.

As she got to work her mind was full of idea, the use of Asgard Ion Power technology, Ancient Lantean Power distribution system and components. Shielding and weapons systems, but of course the need for supply compartments and other necessities to help Destiny, she knew the ship was damaged so wondered if it was possible to use matter stream construction to repair the ship's hull and external components.

So with her new inspiration she got to work and barely notice Vala smile to herself happy to know she had helped her friend.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantean System – Lantea – Atlantis**

Everyday life on Atlantis was speeding up and becoming hectic, the Trinity Queens were striking more and more at human worlds, there methods were catastrophic, they had decimated five entire worlds and razed it.

Todd had helped Atlantis where he could, his numbers were still small, but the research done by his scientists had perfected the retrovirus first created by Doctor Beckett and then advanced by Michael, but the conversion process was slow and it took time for the Wraith to adapt to being hybrids.

With the link to Earth restored again the UTAF was funnelling all manner of materials and products through the gate. The mainland settlement had been vastly improved, from new roads, fully fitted bathrooms and toilets, the schools had received a large amount of new materials also, but they had also received books, all specially printed just for Lantea, some were books on history of Earth but also different cultures and Races and most importantly science and theories.

John had received a visit from Jack personally he explained the full story of what had happened with the IOA and how the mysterious Institute had revealed itself and everything that had transpired since John has ceased all communication.

"I will level with you Sheppard, your decision to stop contact with Earth is not looked on favourably, many look at you as a dictator." Jack told him, "however most believe you were just wiser than most, you realised the IOA were trying to hand over everything Earth has to the Alliance just to fill their own pockets.

"But in the future a civilian leader will need to replace you. You have done an amazing job John, what you have created here in incredible and none could have expected this. I would rather not have you replaced but eventually people will force an election at least." Jack told him awkwardly.

"I never expected to be the leader of this city, in fact I never expected to ever be where I am today, I thought my career was at a dead end and I would be forced to live out my life as a drunk or something worse." John had expressed to him honestly, "But I will not step down unless this city will be safe, and I refuse to abandon the people of this galaxy or the Athosians or Travellers."

Jack had given him a wry smile "I would expect nothing less."

The small contingent of the Torchwood Institute had taken up in one of the outer towers and once they were settled they had immediately got to work helping get Borealis in working order. True to their word they had been able to speed up the process exponentially fixing and rebuilding the Stardrive.

It would take a further six months to get the city ready to leave but it at least now resembled a city ship but it was still a shade of her former glory with only one tower intact and the remnants of the others like scars on the platform.

Teams of scientists were being sent out over Lantea completing aerial surveys and other such tests looking for the perfect location to construct the new shipyard and they would begin construction within the week, they just needed a further shipment from earth with some necessary machinery.

However, something strange had been discovered under the waters of Lantea.

A flagisallus had been very close to the mainland and had not moved for three weeks and Rodney had eventually allowed a group of scientists go and investigate in a 'jumper however once they entered the water to find out what the creature was doing they were assaulted by the power of the animal's hyper sonar.

They had lost control of their jumper and had crashed it into the rock face under the water, but when they managed to regain control and pilot the ship away they saw that the computer and sensors had detected something under the water.

A large life sign was behind the rock face which moved a considerable amount in what should only be solid rock and the 'Jumpers sensors must have been glitching but further probing revealed that there was in fact something behind the rock, an underground facility built under the mainland.

John, Rodney, Zelanka and Ronan were seated in the underwater jumper bay,

"When you think about it, this is why there is this bay" Zelanka said "if there is a second underwater instillation; the jumpers would have been used to get there."

"Yes, but we did a detailed sweep of the ocean the first time we were here, why didn't we find it last time?" John asked "and wouldn't it be in the database?"

"We never went as close or this deep to the mainland" McKay said "the blip that those scientists discovered was incredibly small, think of it like a slow puncture on a wheel, it leaked an incredibly small signal that was almost impossible to pick up. It is possible that we just haven't found this in the database, or it is within the hidden portions of the database, we know there are different levels, and to access them we need to know the name or more about what we are searching for to locate it."

"What do you think it is?" John asked bringing up the HUD to make sure nothing was in front of them in the dark water.

"I do not know." McKay said "hopefully it is the secret of ZPM'S! But I think that life sign is actually another whale, so this place should be very large."

"Now that would be worth the journey." John said as he piloted the 'Jumper out of the city and into the vast ocean.

The trip took them over an hour to reach the outcrop of rock where the signal was emanating from, they saw the flagisallus which McKay had been happy to see, as he believed that it was "Sam" although all of the others just rolled their eyes, how many times would that one whale be the one they found when the planet oceans were full of them.

"Rodney any ideas" John said staring out of the glass at the rock, the 'jumper was getting no readings other than the impossible life sign and a flicking reading it couldn't identify.

"No, but I would guess that there is a signal to open up whatever this is." Rodney said tapping away at his tablet, "are you picking up anything from behind the rock face?"

"Nothing," Zelanka replied "we are getting nothing, at a guess I would say whatever this is, is shielded."

John sat wondering where the unlock button was, when the rock face began to move.

"What did you do?" Rodney asked in shock.

"I didn't do anything; I was looking for the open button" John said defensively.

"Perhaps all you needed was the neural link and the jumper did the rest." Zelanka said shrugging, but his eyes suddenly fell on to the out crop, "oh my."

There was a wide tunnel, capable of fitting three Aurora class ships side by side to enter easily. The walls were made of stone, but lighting ran the length of the tunnel and a smaller whale swam out to meet the other and they left them making odd noises in their language and they swam away contently.

"I would guess that that the young whale must have activated the door, we know that they are able to replicate Ancient language, why not a signal?" McKay said looking at the retreated creatures on awe.

"There is a shield down the tunnel" Zelanka said reading his own tablet, "its holding back the water"

"Where is it getting its power?" John asked wondering if this could have been powered since the Ancient Lanteans had left.

"This door would have kept the water out, so the shield isn't under constant strain" Rodney explained "but it is possible that it is harnessing the geothermal energy when active."

"Well let's go" John said and the 'Jumper went through the shield like it wasn't there, the door behind them closed with a low rumble "well I guess we are not going back that way."

They travelled for a further few minutes at full speed, but they didn't see anything other than rock and the bioluminescent lighting, eventually them found themselves finding not a rock wall, but one made of metal.

"That is clearly Lantean design" Rodney said "well it looks like we have found the instillation."

"According to my calculations we are under the mainland" Zelekna said pushing his glasses up his nose, "a part which we have not overly explored, but according to this it is just a rock formation, and is no good for agriculture, and the rock contains no useful elements."

"Well it's a good place to hide something" Rodney said nodding "Shepard open the door."

John nodded and inputted the same command as the first door, and the doors retracted to the sides, and an inner door retracted downwards and they were welcomed by the sight of a large open cavern of an incredibly size, which was slowly lit by the activating lights and they saw it was not empty.

"Are those…" He began to say but trailed off in shock.

"I think so" Rodney said also opened mouthed,

The lights within the room were still lighting up but they had already seen the treasure trove that the underground facility had to offer.

And the sight was perhaps the most shocking since the discovery of Atlantis itself.

Seven Aurora class ships lay moored individually in bays surrounded by many levels of platforms which allowed for access to all parts of the ship's hull. Only two of them looked to be fully operational, the other five were sitting in their bays surrounded by hundreds of odd looking spider legs tendrils that lay idle around them and they were all in different states of disrepair and some looked like wreckage.

Fifty Puddle Jumpers were also docked in the facility, some of those too looked damaged, but there was also a collection of the larger Ancient Lantean transport ships which looked like the ones they had found under the ocean which Atlas had been found in.

"What is this place" Zelnka asked in awe not knowing where to go to first.

"It's a docking port" Rodney said looking out of the window, and his eyes fell to the damaged ships, "but also a repairing station for the Lantean fleet, perhaps built during the Wraith war."

"Right then, let's see what we can find." John said landing the jumper, "I am not detecting any life support so we will need to suit up."

They went into the rear compartment and pulled on new suits that had been developed by area 51, they were space suits but were smaller than other suits. It was hoped that they would eventually be able to create the Environmental suits found on Destiny, that the Vanir had found and redesigned and outfitted for their survival.

Once suited up they walked to the control centre of the docks that overlooked everything, Rodney was able to power up the facility and get the systems running.

"Well I was right, this facility is powered by geothermal energy but that is just the lights and shielding it needs more power to be fully operational." He said "it used to have two ZPM powering it, but they are both sitting at an eighth of their capacity and I would rather not activate them and drain what little remains."

"We still have some of the ZPM from Atlas's terraforming project, but we have two others that have been used, they maybe half filled with energy so we can use them, unless you think we can integrate our own power sources into this facility." John said wondering if it would be possible.

"We would need three subspace capacitors to even get any effectiveness out of this place" Rodney said "but it is possible, these ships must be what remained of the Lantean Defence Fleet at the end of their war with the Wraith, they must have been put in here to remove them from orbit or even for repair at some point. I would guess the jumpers here came from all of their outposts so they didn't end up in the wrong hands. For thousands of years this facility has been in slumber, even the crew of the Tria did not activate it."

"Have you got any information on the ships?" John asked him as he saw Rodney and Zelenka going through the computer logs.

"Two of the ships are fully functional, they had been repaired here prior to them fleeing Pegasus but they never finished testing them, they have no drones in their storage magazines. They each also have a single fully charged ZPM!" Rodney all but shouted in astonishment and looked at the ships like they were solid gold. "They are installed and merely in the storage compartments, but the logs say that they have them and they were not transported elsewhere. The remaining ships are in different states of repair, one has no engines as they blew up, another was nearly entirely gutted by a solar storm during a mission, the other have small amounts of damage but most of it is unknown as they were put here just to get them away from Wraith hands."

John nodded indicating he had heard and in his mind he went over everything these ships could be used for, as well as how much good the facility could do, "Change over the depleted ZPMs for the fully charges ones, the Aurora's do not require them to fly, but only for optimal power in battle and for the use of the Grodin weapons platforms. I would like to know the full capabilities of this facility. But I would rather that they were not drained."

"How soon could we get the capacitors?" Zelenka asked Rodney, "Are they any free for use on Earth?"

"The Apollo is currently on route, it shouldn't have left the Milky Way yet, we could have the capacitors shipped via Stargate onto the ship and then ferried here." John told them knowing the supplies they were carry to them, "Would they fit through the gate?"

"Not on their own, they wouldn't even fit into the SGC" Rodney explained "however they could transfer them into the Asgard beaming buffer, and transport them like that."

"Open up a communication link to Atlantis." John ordered, "I think Earth and Larrin will be very happy with what we have found."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantean System – Lantea – Atlantis – a few hours later**

Atlantis had made contact with the SGC regarding the discovery and made their request for the Capacitors they needed to power the facility. Landry had placed a call to O'Neil and he has signed off on the requisition immediately and had the Apollo stop on the closest planet with a gate and a data crystal was given to them which contained the capacitors in its stored digitally.

Rodney and Zelenka had installed the fully saturated ZPM's into the nodes replaced the depleted ones and once they were in place the facility came online automatically and powered up the repair bays and the metallic leg contraptions began to move and started carrying out repairs to the hulls of the ships.

They had watched them work for a long time before Rodney had turned the automated repair systems off to conserve power, or at least until they got a better understanding of how the facility worked but so far it looked very promising.

While the two scientists had been getting the facilities power up and running John and Ronon had gone out to explore the facility further to see if there were any more surprises and had found a chamber which had contained twenty seven large silver blocks which had reactivated with the power; and suddenly they were transformed into human form replicators.

John and Ronon had been shocked to see them and had started shooting at them but they had just ignored them and others had carried on and walked out of the chamber and began to work on the ships.

They were a part of the facilities operations, programmed by the Ancient Lanteans to carry out repairs to the internal areas of the ships that the repair system could not reach without taking apart the hull.

John had not been happy to see them, but once Rodney explained they were programmed to carry out repairs and maintenance only, and that they were not capable of replicating independently and they could not write their own programming, and that they had heavy constraints on their programming that prevented them becoming like the asurans did John accept their presence, it also helped that they could only operate within the facility also, if they cross the threshold they would disassemble.

"So anything new?" John asked after returning from one of the working Aurora's.

"Those large Transport ships were used to transport resources, as you know at the height of the Lantean Empire, they had many planets under their protection and they had numerous outposts. Some of those were for mining resources to be transported here, and to their construction outposts." Rodney explained "now I have found data for forty planets which used to have these installations, some of them we have been to, others we have not. The facilities reserves are low but with this data we could restock it."

"We can arrange for teams to scout those planets." John told him making a mental note of it for the future council session which would take place to discuss this find "anything else?"

"Well the damaged Aurora's can be repaired here in the bays, the facilities repair systems can carry out all that is necessary so long as the raw materials are available" Zelanka said "it is also possible that we can reconfigure a number of the berths for ship building of our own which will satisfy the Travellers and Earth."

"How do the ships get down here?" Shepard asked looking for the way out.

"Well according to the station logs the Aurora's are capable of travelling underwater like the Jumpers." Rodney said in a delighted voice "I never thought that they had that ability, but it would seem the underwater working technology is where the Ancient Lanteans did their best work."

"What about our own ships?" he asked

"No, the Ancient Lantean ships were built to be able to withstand the oceans, our ships hulls would suffer degradation and cause hull breaches." Rodney pointed out, "but I think…."

He walked over to the console and pressed a number of buttons before pulling out his tablet and connecting it up he suddenly seemed to get excited when a mechanical sound was heard overhead and crack of light peaked through the roof which started to retract but a shield flared at the same time just as dust began to fall from the ceiling.

"ah ha! I thought so, the roof retracts fully allowing ships to fly directly out of the hanger, the shield stops anything getting in other than ships."

"Get a team over here to begin to catalogue everything here, but I want this facility offline until after the council session." John told them both "Radek, you are in charge of this, and I want a full report given to Rodney within the hour so he can present it to the Council."


	27. Chapter 27

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Chapter Twenty-Seven**

**Homecoming**

Three months had passed since the Torchwood Institute had delivered the Valliant to General O'Neill and the United Terranian Armed Forces, and it had taken them almost a month to get up to speed on its many systems and get the mobile headquarters fully operational.

As all Earth defence was coordinated and controlled from the vessel they had drafted in personnel from all nations who had signed the new alliance treaty for mutual planetary defence purposes, it had been very hard to get all of the kinks worked out but it was getting better with each day.

The Weapons Platform in Antarctica was still operational and the control chair had been painstakingly installed on the ship by a contingent of scientists from Atlantis who were specialists and the inventors of the Reverse Engineered Ancient Lantean Control Chair and it had been tied into the Valliant using its sensors and transmitters to connect with the outpost and the Drone storage inside.

UTAF officers were still being transitioned but they now had a larger force of military and many nations were converting existing or disused military bases or installations for use by the UTAF for forces native to those nations but the facilities would be commanded by military officers from other nations.

With Atlantis back under Earth's jurisdiction they began to share in the knowledge that both sides had accumulated since they had stopped communicating. Atlantis shared some of its zpm's from its small stock and also shared new technological discovered such as the exogenesis device and some of the 'Jumpers from the underwater repair station on Lantea.

Atlantis was seen as a sticking point still, John was still an American Military officer in charge of a civilian expedition of international importance and with Jack now head of the UTAF he was supposed to remain impartial but he was making sure that John was left alone as much as possible.

With the discovery of a small but damaged fleet of Aurora-class ships many nations on Earth had demanded their immediate transfer to the Milky Way. Jack agreed that would be a great asset but currently that would not be possible due to the limited hyperdrive capabilities the ships had, and retrofitting a Asgard Hyperdrive was not believed to be the best solution.

John and the High Council of Atlantis had asked that the ships remain in Pegasus to allow them to better fight the Wraith, Earth had the fleet of BC304's, BC303's and the BC305 protecting it, while Atlantis only had the Daedalus and a number of the very inferior Traveller Generation Ships.

Jack had agreed with the request, especially since they didn't have much choice in the matter.

In Pegasus another miraculous thing had happened. With the help of the Institute, the Atlantis scientists and engineers had managed to patch up the aged and derelict city-ship Borealis. It was now working at minimal safety levels and they were getting the fabled city ready to for its first flight since it crashed over three thousand years prior.

Earth had not been left alone in their small home star system, the Lucian Alliance had realised that they were no longer being fed information but their informants on Earth and their spies, and realised the IOA were no longer there to help them so instead they turned their attentions to many worlds that Earth traded with or was supposed to protect as part of the Protected Planets Treaty.

Jack had engaged the Alliance many times in the last few months to try and frighten them into submission but when Earth ships exited hyperspace they would flee and only trade small amounts of weapons fire. It was frustrating but the Alliance was striking and running away as they knew they were outmatched head on.

Four teams of UTAF personnel had been sent off world. Charged with locating the Alliance Homeworld that many believed was called Lucia, but none seemed to know where it was located as the Alliance was a large organisation made up of people from hundreds of worlds.

One day aboard the Valliant Jack was sitting in the officer's mess getting a small lunch, he tried to avoid the mess when he could but his office was being upgraded with some fancy technology which he was sure he wouldn't use but allowed it anyway.

"General O'Neill Sir?" said a young woman who was on duty.

"What is it?" he asked looking up from his club sandwich.

"Sir the long range sensor grid has detected two vessels on a path direct to Earth." She explained.

Jack frowned and thought of the location of ships in the fleet. Only the Ares and Prometheus II were currently deployed, the former performing a deep sweep of the former Goa'uld occupied space and the latter was on a resupply mission to Olympiad shipyards.

Sighing with resignation knowing that he would not be needed if it was ships of Earth's fleet he stood up and left his lunch and followed her out and through the corridors until they reached the operations room with was alive with activity.

"What is the problem." Jack called above the noise.

"Two ships on approach General, and their energy signatures are unlike any that we have ever seen" was the reply, "And they are heading to Earth and from their path they have come through the void of space."

**Milky Way Galaxy – USS Odyssey **

The _USS Odyssey_ was a mere few lightyears outside of the Sol system and only a very short time away from arriving home at Earth. It had taken her and her sister ship _USS George Hammond_ two weeks to cross the very large Milky Way Galaxy and finally the end of their extended mission was in sight.

While their mission had not been planned at all, it was not a complete loss. They had discovered exactly how far the IOA had betrayed Earth and how deep their net of conspirators went and it made both commanders of the ships nervous and apprehensive.

They had also made a startling discovery, the Black Eye Galaxy was home to a humanoid life form which was being hunted and killed by an unknown enemy. Then they had discovered the Medusa Cascade which broke the laws of physics and should not exist, Samantha Carter, commander of the Hammond had wished they had more time to study its composition but they had needed to get home as soon as possible.

Mitchell and Carter before entering their home Galaxy had planned on dealing the SGC to check in, but they did not want to tip their hand, they had the IOA prisoner on board and they did not want the IOA to be made aware that they had survived with their betrayal known.

It was a hard decision to come to, after being out of contact for so long they would have been declared MIA and possibly even presumed dead, but with the security of Earth at stake they could not take that chance.

They had also hosted two of the unknown race of people aboard the ships after rescuing them from containment, they had lived for only three days but had died due to unknown causes, but in that short amount of time they had realised just how different their physiology was, they were placed into cold stasis for further analysis back on Earth.

Being on such an extended mission came with its shortfalls which neither ship was ill prepared for, maintenance and damage could be done but they were not equipped to carry out everything that they needed.

It was the _Odyssey _that had the most problems, the Asgard Core that helped power the ship was malfunctioning and Sam had been unable to find the fault as the equipment she needed was on Earth, the matter stream technology could have created the necessary materials but the ZPM that was installed on the ship during the Tauri-Ori war had been depleted over the years and could not supply the wanted power to help get the ship through the voids between galaxies.

_Odyssey_ was an old girl, and the flagship of Earth's fleet, she had survived many battles and had taken considerable amount of damage over the years, which while repaired did take a toll on the ship. She was not the oldest ship of her class, no that was her sister ship _Daedalus_ which was deployed in the Pegasus Galaxy.

In reality _Odyssey _was due a complete refit and overhaul of many of her key operating systems and some of the more recent improvements in the class's design needed to be added, the Hammond was of a Mark II Daedalus-Class but while the Asgard upgrades made _Odyssey_ a powerful ship, at its core it was still only the Mark I and it was struggling to keep up with the newer models.

Cam was impatient as they travelled through the last leg of their race across the Milky Way and he wondered if Earth had detected their approach. The planet had a net of sensors that allowed them to peer out into the surrounding space of the Sol System, they were nowhere near as powerful as those sensors installed on Atlantis, but they were close enough that they may have picked up their heading.

"Okay boys and girls, we are just on the outskirts of our home system, so make sure you are ready for the thorough debrief and then you will be on leave for at least a month!" Cam said over the internal communication network and he saw the relief on his crew, this jaunt across multiple Galaxies had stretched crew morale considerably, they were not explorers and unlike the Destiny Expedition they had not adapted to it very well.

"Sir, sensors show that the _Hammond_ is just a few minutes behind us." The navigation officer reported "Are we waiting for them or do we proceed straight to Earth?"

Cam paused, he had thought they would arrive at the same time but he had ordered his crew to push the ships engine hard to get them home and it seemed that they had been successful, "No, it is imperative we reach Earth as soon as possible, drop us out within the Moons orbit of Earth and from there we can communicate directly with General O'Neil, _Hammond_ can meet us after we might need her assistance depending on what has changed since we have been gone."

"Sir are you worried? If the IOA has betrayed Earth to the Alliance, then it could be possible that they now control the planet." One of the officers on the bridge said.

The thought had crossed the minds of all the members of SG1 that were stationed on the two ships, and it was one that they thought would be unlikely, but it was not impossible and if it had happened then both ships would flee in order to make a plan to recapture the planet however they could.

The wait for them to drop out was unbearable, the atmosphere aboard the ship was tense, they couldn't wait to find to get home but they were scared by what they might come home too.

Eventually they reached their exit coordinates and the whirling blue vortex of hyperspace parted and they dropped out in their home system, the beautiful blue and green world dominated the observation windows.

"Sir we are detecting five ships in orbit of the planet." The sensor operator said.

"Power shields!" Cam ordered harshly, he didn't see the ships but he wasn't taking any chances with his own, he had come to care greatly for it even if he hated being cooped up on it.

The shield flared around the ship and weapons were powered but left inactive.

In front of them the opposing ships came into view and to the surprise of the crew they saw that they were Daedalus-Class ships, and a ship of an unknown class which was clearly of Earth.

"Sir I am detecting a sixth vessel rising from Earth's atmosphere, the computer is having difficulties identifying it."

"Well it looks like things may have changed while have been away, and they have been busy" Cam said looking at them critically, but he still didn't order the shields to be dropped. "Are they hailing us?"

"Yes Sir, it is the coming from the largest ship." His officer reported, and with a press of a button the communication was brought up on the screen.

"General Mitchell, I am Captain Graham Hewitt of the Allied Terran Ship _Ares_, you have been gone a very long time" said the man who was on display on the monitor, but he looked happy to see them, "many believed you were lost."

"Well we do have a very long story to tell, but I must say it is unexpected to see so many ships in orbit of Earth." Cam told them man, "But it is urgent that I speak to General O'Neil this is matter of utmost importance to Earth Security that I must inform him of."

The ship captain paused as someone outside the view of the feed spoke to him and he frowned.

"Is the ship that approaches the _USS George Hammond_?" He asked ignoring his request.

"Yes, General Carter fell a little behind on the drive over" Cam said scathingly not liking being ignored.

"I see, odd, both of your ships have a trace signature which made it impossible for us to register you as ships of the fleet, we believed an unknown enemy was coming to Earth" the captain said amused, "I find myself curious as to where you have been."

"Well once I have spoken to the General I will be happy to tell you." Cam said pointedly.

The captain chuckled, "Do not worry General Mitchell, the _Valliant_ has just exited Earth's atmosphere."

"The Valliant?" Cam questioned, but the sensor operator drew his attention.

"Sir that ship we detected, it has just exited the atmosphere of the planet, sensors are reading it as a new ship, but it's configuration is unlike I have ever seen." She reported surprised, she displayed a computer model of it on the screen next to the open communication line.

Cam looked at it surprised, he recognised the design as being of Earth, and it looked similar in composition as the new _Ares_ ship of the Unknown class, and perhaps even that of Atlantis, it looked like a naval aircraft carrier.

A new broadcast reached the _Odyssey_ and once opened the very relieved face of General Jack O'Neill was displayed and they cut the communication with the _Ares_.

"Mitchell! How's kicks? Had yourself a little joyride of the flagship of the fleet did we?" O'Neill joked but he looked happy to see him.

"Sorry sir, it was unavoidable, you know how it is, sometimes you just cannot help where you end up." Cam reported, "Carter…"

He trailed off as just as he was about to report on the _Hammond_ it dropped out of hyperspace to find the _Odyssey_ surrounded by the five ships.

"This is Brigadier General Samantha Carter of the _USS George Hammond_, I address the gathered fleet and demand you release the ship you have detained." Said an angry response.

O'Neill smirked to himself on screen having heard the broadcast.

"Sir, there is a very good reason why she thinks you have captured my ship." Cam said in her defence.

Jack only waived him off

"This is General Jack O'Neill, I address the overzealous general aboard her ship and tell her to power down her weapons before she attacks her commanding officer."

A second video link opened and it displayed the shocked face of Sam and in the background Tea'lc, Daniel Jackson and Vala Mal Doran.

"Sir?" She said surprised "but how…."

Jack smiled at her in a way Cam chose to disregard as it wasn't something he wanted to acknowledge, "You have been gone a long time Carter, power down your shields and weapons, and beam aboard this vessel."

"We have reason to believe that the Earth Security had been threatened and the Lucian Alliance has infiltrated all levels of the planet organisations." Sam said not caring if she insulted him, "how do I know this is not a trap or that you are not a ploy."

"The Alliance is still a problem for Earth but their accomplices, the IOA, have been removed from office and weeded out all of the co-conspirators." Jack told her and he laughed at her shocked gasp, "Interesting that you are aware of the IOA's treachery Carter, I look forward to hearing how you know. The Earth you left is not the Earth that you have returned to."

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – Valliant – Offices of Home World Command **

Ten hours had passed since brigadier generals Samantha Carter and Cameron Mitchell had returned to Earth on their ships, they had done as ordered and all of SG1 had been beamed from the bridges of both ships into a conference room aboard the Valliant.

There had been a tense few minutes where military personnel held them at gun point until General O'Neill arrived and waved them away, and so began the start of the debrief and Jack was getting every detail from them.

During a break where Jack had to report to a world council SG1 were sent to the infirmary for tests and had managed to get a bite to eat. Dr Lam had been called in from the SGC to carry out the tests and it had been a happy reunion.

The tests did not take long at all and it was confirmed that they were indeed who they said, and then they were sent back to the briefing room to finish the story of what had happened to them and once they were done Jack filled them in on what had happened on Earth.

"This ship and a number of the ones you saw in orbit were constructed on a new off-world shipyard" he said and Sam noticed he looked annoyed "fortunate really that the facility was built as the two of you disappeared with two of our ships."

"If you didn't build them who did?" Daniel asked.

"They call themselves Torchwood." Jack explained "The Torchwood Institute, they are a private group – mainly British – who are responsible for protecting the people of the planet from hostile threats."

"The British?" Daniel questioned surprised "how can they reach this level of construction already, the US has nothing like this, or it didn't when we left."

Jack smiled a little "Torchwood is an anomaly and one that seems impossible to unravel. The Institute was founded by Queen Victoria in England and it has spread out across many nations, we think they have operations across the old empire, although none in the US."

"And they just handed these ships over?" Vala asked "Can I get one, a ship like this would go for a good price to some people I know back on…"

Daniel threw her a pointed look and she kept quiet, "Vala raises a good point though Jack, why did they give you these ships? And why have we only just heard of this Institute?"

"Because they hid themselves very well Danny boy." Jack said gruffly, "They only revealed themselves when they did because the IOA had sold us down the river and the Lucian Alliance was planning on attacking us. They had been watching, recording and monitoring the IOA for months and then they basically kidnapped all the world leaders and showed them all how stupid they were trusting the IOA with protecting the planet."

SG1 sat mouth wide open unable to even imagine what he said.

"It was just a normal day until every facility related to the gate was shut down and soldiers beamed and detained everyone, they had a BC303, BC304 and the BC305 and had incapacitated our own ships." Jack said bitterly "They caught us with our pants down and that's how everything has changed."

"What is the UTAF?" Vala asked looking interest in the small silence, "I have seen it everywhere on this ship."

"Unified Terranian Armed Forces." Jack said automatically.

"Terranian?" Daniel mused aloud, "From the Ancient Word Terra? Meaning Earth?"

Jack nodded "Still a scholar I see Daniel, yes the very same, it is still very new and we still haven't worked it all out."

"Sir, I have to ask, what is to happen with my crew?" Mitchell asked, the first words he had volunteered so far that had not been in the response to a question.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"We have been deployed for a long time sir, I am hopping they will get a period of leave?" Cam questioned hopefully.

"Course they will Mitchell!" Jack said "They will need a debrief and a medical but once that is all done they will get some time to go home and relax."

"Thank you Sir." Cam said and he looked very relieved and he slumped in his chair.

"And what of us?" Sam asked, "Hammond does need an extensive inspection of its systems, but Odyssey is also suffering from our journey, I would offer to do it myself but to be honest sir I could use some down time too."

"Your ships require a decontamination before they go anywhere Carter." Jack told her firmly, "But I will send them to Olympiad for the maintenance after that, the Institute techs should be able to get them back up and running easily. As for leave you are to report to the SGC tomorrow and then from there you can do what you wish, Cater I however would like to send you temporarily to Atlantis."

Sam nodded happily, it would give her time at home and she could catch up with…. friends, and then go to the ancient city she had once commanded.

"Jack…." Daniel began to say but Jack cut over him.

"Yes Daniel you may go to Atlantis too, Vala can go with you if she chooses." Jack said with a roll of his yes.

"T I would not presume to tell you where to go, however I am sure Master Bra'tac and your son would be most happy to see you as soon as possible." Jack told his old friend, "They often dial Earth to see if we have any news of your whereabouts."

"Indeed." Teal'c said with a small smile "I will like to see them myself."

**Milky Way Galaxy – Durrant System **

In a distant corner of the galaxy was a large system call Durrant, five habitual worlds circled a single star and each world contained a stargate and often traded with each other.

A hyperspace window opened just outside the system and a single silver and bronze vessel appeared from the hole in the universe and sat for a moment, then it activated its sublight engines and began to moved towards the centre of the system.

The worlds in the system were not advanced, two of them were just reaching industrialisation and all were in the process of rebuilding after the Ori crusade and they had not been noticed by the Alliance yet, so the alien ship that had now entered their system was not detected by its human populace.

The ship was not very fast but as it neared the nearest planet a section of the hull retracted from within in a large torpedo fired out and it accelerated towards the planet. This was repeated four more times on each planet and unusually for a weapon there was no explosion of noticeable outcome, the torpedoes broke apart in the atmosphere of each world, but the vessel remained in the system.

Standing at the ships observation window was a man who looked out at the closest world and he was joined by a second.

"Report?" the first man ordered.

"All targets were hit, the weapon is already working. In three weeks it will spread across each world and affect them. After that it shall be swift." The second said.

"An acceptable outcome, we shall remain to monitor the effects and then we shall return, we need to ready our next payload and our final target will be guarded well."

"They must believe us dead, after what they did to our home."

"Perhaps, but in time Earth will come to regret what they did but by then it will already be too late from them." The first man said and he continued to stare out at the planet outside the glass and showed no emotion, they had just killed or sterilised close to four million people and he didn't seem to even care.

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	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Pegasus Defence Fleet

It had been a few months since the discovered of the Ancient Lantean repair station under the mainland, the Atlantis teams were still going through the station finding out what was in there and finding out how the station worked.

Zelenka's idea of recalibrating one of the berths to begin full scale ship construction had been problematic as they were unable to change the programming of one without interrupting all of the others and it was feared that if they continued to tamper with the ancient programming they could destroy the repair station.

But the repair station was put to use, the first ship to enter the automated repair station was the Tri, the ship which had once carried Ancient Lanteans across the galaxy but had been abandoned until the Atlantis team salvaged it.

Tria's only damage was to the Interstellar hyperdrive that had been irreparably damaged during the Ancient Lantean-Wraith war, but the Atlantis teams had been able to piece together a hybrid system and patch up the old drive using parts from Asgard drives.

But with the repair station online they could begin getting the hyperdrive back to its Ancient standard.

When the Tri descended into the ocean to use the underwater access doors many had been sceptical but there had been no problems piloting the ship down there at all, a dormant self-navigation program had activated as they touched the water and the ship piloted itself through the access corridor and then into a repair berth.

Once in the repair berth the system activated the revolving cradle that surrounded the berth began to move, blue light shone across the hull from bow to stern as the stations automated repair systems scanned the ship for damage.

Four small discus shaped objects rose up out of the berth and entered the ship and also began to scan the interior for further damage, they reminded McKay of the Kino's from Destiny only shaped like a disk but were for ship diagnosis.

A final step of the repair docking procedure had been when the Tria's hull plating on its belly had moved backwards and a telescopic arm extended and made a connection with a matching arm that extended out of the station and the Station downloaded all data from the ship and began to run ship diagnostics on the systems looking for other problems.

Six after the ship had docked, the repair station got to work on the Tria, the cradle it sat in moved and its metal arachnid arms reached out and began to patch parts of the hull which were damaged or degraded and in some placed they cut away sections in order to reach other systems.

The nanite repair system, the replicators the Ancients had created as part of the system, had also been brought online and five replicators had walked out of their storage room and entered the ship and began to work on the internal repairs.

John had ordered Rodney and Radek to monitor them at all times, no matter how many times they said it was not necessary due to the constraints of their programming, John did not trust replicators at all.

Atlantis was on high alert as part of the Trinity Queens armada had set a course for Messaline, the location of the Pegasus Alpha Site located under a mountain on the planet, its presence was shielded but it was a worry for the High Council.

The Alpha site had expanded over the years, they had burrowed down into the rocky mountain and now they were in the process of constructing a residential bunker for any possible mass relocation of people and dotted across the mountain were concealed weapon platforms and missile silos, and on one suspiciously flat stretch of rock was the runway for the F302 squadron stationed there.

Major Reeves was in command of the Messaline Base and had reported that they had detected the Wraith on a course to the planet but had then cut off the connection to the gate for fear of the subspace message being detected and he had remained out of contact since.

Woolsey had said they should dial in send through reinforcements but John had told him that in the event of such an event like a wraith fleet approaching on the planet, the protocol was to bury the gate to prevent connections.

The Gate was housed within a gate room like all other Earth facilities and it also had a shield and Iris to protect it from unwelcome travellers, but Atlantis had blocked inbound travel by blocking the event horizon years ago a new security feature was added.

Under the base of the gate was a deep rectangular hole, and when necessary the gate would be lowered into the hole and then from both sides concreate protrusions would extend into the event horizon, in effect burry the gate like the Egyptians of old.

The Daedalus was sent to Messaline as a precautionary measure, the Wraith didn't know the location of the base so they should be safe but just in case they wanted to be close by, a cloaked Jumper piloted by lieutenant Colonel Lorne had entered the system and waited for the Wraith to arrive to see what they did.

Ten ships exited hyperspace above the planet, six hives and four cruisers and more importantly all Wraith under the control of the Trinity Queens. They encircled the planet and began to scan it looking for any sign of infrastructure, but they apparently found none as after half an hour they began a random bombardment of the planet.

"Colonel Caldwell this is Lieutenant Colonel Lorne do you copy?" Lorne said over a secure channel of subspace that would remain unnoticed to the wraith.

"Lorne we hear you loud and clear, what is happening?" Caldwell replied.

"I don't think they have found any trace of the base, but they have now begun an aerial bombardment." Lorne reported quickly, he then brought up the HUD and watched where the Wraith were targeting.

"For what reason?" Caldwell mused, "You are sure they have not detected them?"

"Yes sir." Lorne said frowning, "I don't think that they have, it seems random."

"Have they hit the base?" Caldwell probed

"Two shots from their weapons have hit the mountainside under which the base sits." Lorne responded piloting the jumper closer to probe the planet and identify where they had struck with more detail. "Jumper sensors are not detecting the base so the shielding net which protects the base seems to be intact, but I am still far out so the readings may be off."

"Has the base activated its defences?" Caldwell asked, "If they are under threat they should have activated them."

"No, and I don't think they are going too." Lorne guessed, "If they were going to strike or defend themselves they would have done it, they are waiting this out, if they do not react the Wraith will assume them are not there."

The random bombardment continued for twenty more minutes, the Wraith had event struck at the seas of the planet before they began to move away from the planet and they sat above it for a while before making the jump back into hyperspace.

_Daedalus _had made a quick jump to above the planet to reach them quickly and once they were in orbit they had beamed down into the base as they were not responding to any communications.

The base had received only two direct hits, its strategic location under the dense rock had protected the structure without the need to activate an energy shield, the base was intact but the structure had been weakened in two locations and would need to undergo some repairs.

Three weapon platforms was also destroyed in the bombardment but the Wraith had not detected their presence.

Major Reeves had been surprised to find them within his base, but had welcomed the early news that the base was safe from the Wraith, they had only their limited sensors the more powerful had been retracted and deactivated as they could have been detected, the limited sensors only covered a small area of space surrounding the planet.

With the planet secure the gate was brought out of its lockdown chamber and it rose back out of the floor to sit waiting for travellers.

But the battle with the Trinity Queens was far from over, the enemy fleet had begun to attack another world, the _Daedalus_ and the Travellers ships were sent out to try and defend the worlds. The Tri was still undergoing its repairs which meant one of their strongest ships was out of commission and two of the working aurora-class ships had no drones and they did not want to reply on its Grodin weapon systems as they were overly reliant on the rare and valued power source.

Drone production was something the Atlantis team was still not able to even begin, they had many of the necessary materials but replicating the phase shifting technology, navigation and propulsion systems and even the energy field that allowed them to tunnel through an enemy hull creating large damage before exploding was not something that they had unlocked in the database.

Even the Institute had not been able to unlock the secrets of the drones, or at least they said they had not, since they had taken up residency in their tower they had been a great help to Atlantis. While some had concentrated on getting Borealis ready for transport, others had concentrated on researching the Atlantis Database, while others worked on the mainland utilities.

John had been surprised when the Institute scientists wanted to inspect the Atlantis Utility technologies built by the Ancient Lanteans, they had then combed the database before they went to the mainland and began working on improving the systems already in place.

It had been a normal day on Lantea, with teams off world but that changed suddenly when five ships dropped out of hyperspace within the Lantean system, they had been monitoring them during their travel but as their signatures were not Wraith they had wondered who it could possibly be.

John had ordered the Pegasus Defence Fleet, made up of the Daedalus which had returned from his attacks on the Wraith, the Apollo and six Generation Ships just outside of the system outside all but Ancient Lantean and Asgard sensor range.

It had come to a great surprise to the Atlantis personnel six golden pyramidal ships dropped out of hyperspace, the Atlantis computers not recognising them as they had not known they were equipped with an intergalactic hyperdrive.

Only one group could possibly have the coordinates for Atlantis, and that was the Lucian Alliance.

The Alliance did not waste time once they dropped out, they locked onto the city and the mainland and weapons fire began to rain down through the planet's atmosphere and Gliders were also sent to attack them.

Atlantis and the mainland had powered their protective shields and they rippled slightly under the weapons fire from the ships and to their surprise the weapons fire was much more powerful than it should be and Rodney hypothesised that they had installed the stolen subspace capacitor technology and had detected a ripple in subspace and it confirmed his theory.

The defence turrets, like those that protected Messaline Base activated and rose out of the mounting and fired on the gliders and destroyed many of them without the need to use their supply of drones and the F-302's picked off the remainder.

However, it was above the planet where a second battle unfolded, the Pegasus Defence Fleet jumped back into the system above the enemy ships and opened fire indiscriminately, and even with their new technological advances the Alliance forces had been crushed entirely as they refused to flee not having any further coordinates for Pegasus.

But the Alliance did something very unexpected, just as they were being destroyed they let off a massive subspace data burst and it was like bright beacon for any race of being with advanced technology.

John had immediately made dial in to Earth to report that the Alliance had made a play for Atlantis but had been destroyed, the wreckages of the Ha'tak vessels were scoured for any data and information they could gain from it and they found the ships origins to be a lone dark world outside the main arm of the Milky Way which had been built by Anubis but never used until a small faction of the Alliance had found it, and found a prototype Intergalactic hyperdrive.

The hyperdrives were incredibly unstable and dangerous, the Alliance had set out with twelve ships and half of them had been obliterated immediately when they made the jump to hyperspace from their construction planet. They were also very slow, having taken sixteen months to get to Lantea and it was clear from what was left of the ships they had almost no rations left aboard.

Atlantis closely monitored the long range sensors for any changes and it was with horror that they saw that the broadcast had been picked up by the Wraith; Fourteen Wraith hives, a significant part of the Trinity fleet was traveling towards them.

There estimated arrival was two weeks, so the Expedition began to prepare for the attack. The mainland's defences were increased by the Institute installing a device to the mainland power system that doubled its output to further power the shield, while the Atlantis military forces added more defence platforms around the mainland having automated rail gun batteries sent through the gate from Earth.

Earth had been very concerned about the threat and had offered to send through further support through the gate but that was all they could do, but they had informed them that they had found the Alliance shipyard and had destroyed it in an all-out assault and the _Sun Tzu_ and _Majestic_ had received significant damage in the battle.

The times of Atlantis hiding their presence was over and waiting above the planet was the entire Pegasus Defence Fleet, eleven Generation ships, the _Daedalus_, _Apollo_ and _Tria_ were all waiting. Waiting within the skies of Lantea were the three Imperial Cargo ships, Jumpers and F-302 which were stationed to protect the city and mainland from darts.

It was a dark day for Atlantis when the armada arrived, the sheer number of forces set against them were large, not only the fourteen hives but also twenty cruisers and many on Atlantis believed that the fight would end in their defeat.

Four of the hives that led the wraith armada were different to the others, their hull composition was denser and their weapons were stronger and it took three times the amount of Plasma Beam weapons fire to neutralise them but these new ships were also cutting into the Pegasus Defence Fleet ships and causing damage.

The Generational ships were much stronger than they had once been after they had all been repaired by Atlantis as part of their partnership, but they were far weaker than the other three vessels and for them to be improved further would require a rebuild from scratch.

Three of the Travellers ships had been severely damaged with its hull breached and venting atmosphere and its power systems inactive left the crews in dire trouble, _Daedalus_ and _Apollo_ had diverted their attention to saving their crews and beaming them aboard, while a further two of their ships limped away from the battle to the opposite side of the planet.

Colonel Ellis had tried a risky manoeuvre and had powered into the armada shooting out at all of the ships but the Wraith realising Ellis's intention to weaken many of them in one run had concentrated all of their weapons fire on the lone ship and they had lost their hyperdrive and shields quickly before they managed to flee to safety and found refuge behind the _Tria_.

Aboard the _Tria_ was John, all but the hyperdrive had been fully repaired in the fleet repair station under the mainland and it was the main target of the Hives who recognised its superior technology as a threat having thought the Ancient Fleet thousands of years before.

Bright yellow drones flew out of its hull and they were cutting into the enemy ships cruelly but they were often intercepted by the Hives darts making them useless, but John did not intent to lose any ships and had equipped it with a fully powered zpm which was utilised to power the Grodin weapons system.

The powerful energy beams that were deadly powerful and the most efficient beam weapons ever created cut through two hive ships easily and destroyed them while its shields blossomed under weapons fire but the ancient ship was an old warrior and was not going to fall that day.

"Caldwell, take out those ships with the Asgard weapons, I will use the Grodin." Sheppard commanded just as their ships were attacked by a large wave of darts on kamikaze runs reducing their shields considerably as their destruction was amplified by some unknown factor.

Both of their weapons took out two more hives and four cruisers, but the Grodin weapon was overheating the power conduits and required a cool down before it could be fired again without destroying the conduits entirely.

"Sir, the remaining vessels are firing on the _Apollo_ and the Traveller ships" said a young traveller officer aboard the Tria.

"Understood, what are our options?" John asked frowning while thinking quickly looking at the tactical holographic projection in front of him.

"The Grodin is out, I would not recommend using it for ten minutes' sir, and our drone supply is nearly entirely depleted, only the anti-aircraft turrets are functioning." The officer reported quickly looking at his station and relating the information, "Sir the Apollo is trying to flee but the Wraith are pursing, we are going to lose them and the generational ships they are defenceless."

"No we are not!" John told him and he patched himself through to the _Daedalus_, "Caldwell, intercept those ships with your own, block their weapons fire with your own shields, the _Tria_ will do the same."

Shepard plotted the course for the Tria with only a thought and reacted immediately and he stood up and shouted at Rodney who was sitting at one of the stations "Rodney, you have the ATA gene and it will accept your commanded, get in that chair and help our fleet now!"

"But I don't know how!" Rodney exclaimed, but John stalked forward and physically dragged him from his station and threw him towards the control chair.

"McKay is in command, follow his orders" John ordered ignoring Rodney's protests "Protect those ships!"

John broke out into a run and left the Bridge.

"Okay" Rodney said calming himself and sat down and the chair activated recognising his DNA signature and saw that they were now in the path of the weapons fire. "I am transferring the weapons systems to manual, all of your use the trurrets to strike those vessels and the darts, slow them down while John does what he can, I will use the remaining drones."

The crew took a moment to respond to his order, he did not sound confident at all but he closed his eyes and input the command through the chair and he focused all of his attention on the drones and tried not to think what was riding on his skill at firing the weapons.

But Rodney's aim was true he sent the drones darting across space, the crew using the weapons turrets cut through the darts protecting the Hives and they all hit their mark while Rodney simultaneously kept the ship blocking the _Apollo_ and traveller ships keeping the _Tria's_ shield in the path of the weapons fire.

Caldwell was in trouble too, its shields were also failing and it had been forced to pilot away from its run through the enemy forces and divert all avalible power from weapons to shields to try and recharge them.

The remaining traveller vessels had been forced to jump away to safety as their ships shields were failing and they could not afford to lose more of their ships, only Larrin's ship, Reaper, was still functioning.

"Doctor McKay, there are still five Hives baring down on us and three cruisers. We are the only vessel still with shields and I am now detecting two more ships in hyperspace heading directly towards us at considerable speed."

"Where is Shepard!" Rodney yelled to everyone within the Bridge.

"Doctor, I am now detecting two more ships, and they are approaching from the planet surface. The computer is recognising them as aurora-class!" The Traveller Officer called out surprised.

Both of the new Aurora-class ships were accelerating towards them, shields raised and the Tria's sensors identified the unmistakable power signatures of ZPM's aboard them both.

Their defence turrets glinted and they sent out a huge amount of covering fire destroying all remaining darts in the area and then a small number of drones also joined the fight.

"This is Sheppard!" said an open broadcast across the Lantean channel, "I want all ships to leave the battle and seek cover under Atlantis's shield and the mainland shield. Only _Tria_, these two Aurora and the _Daedalus_ are to remain."

"McKay I am having Lorne beamed to you to take control of that ship." John added and immediately there was a bright white light on the Tria bridge and the Colonel appeared. "Larrin! Get away now, I do not want your ship damaged further, seek refuge now."

"Copy that, but we will be speaking about the use of those Lantean Warships!" she said over the radio.

Shepard didn't respond.

"Caldwell, what's your status?" he asked instead

"We have enough shield to deal with these but we will have to stay out of the way." Came a curt reply,

The three aurora ships used their Grodin weapons to cut through the remaining Wraith vessels, they had tried to flee but the Lantean fleet was faster, their weapons took out their hyperdrive effortlessly and then they finished the battle by destroying the ships.

With the Wraith defeated they waited, they were taking no chances with the unknown vessels that were powering through hyperspace at an incredible speed, when it was only minutes away John ordered the fleet to perform a defensive line. The Apollo re-joined them for the line with their systems working to a certain degree but it was enough to fight, and it along with the Daedalus were flanked by the three Aurora-class vessels and they had all of their energy weapons pointed at the estimated location for the oncoming weapons hyperspace window when they arrived.

But standing in reserve was Atlantis, ready to utilise its own Grodin weapon and the fleet was ready to move out of its path should the enemy be more powerful they could handle.

The Hyperspace window opened and out shot ships that were very familiar to them all.

The Ares had dropped out of hyperspace with an accompanying BC:304 and they arrived with shields raised and weapons systems powered.

An open broadcast signal reached them and they heard a human voice say:

"High Councillor Shepard of Atlantis, this is Captain Hewitt of the Ares" said the voice "We were sent to assist you but it seems you have managed without us."

"Well sorry about that, you only missed out but half an hour." John told him and he sounded tired, "We have been battered but we will live, I would be grateful if you could patrol the system to see if there are any wraith hiding in the debris field and the asteroid belt, I have to see that the fleet begins its repairs."

"Of course." Hewitt replied "We shall be here for a week, our hyperdrives have been modified to get us hear and we have practically burnt them out."

"Well we should be able to help you with that." John replied and he cut the communication and sighed deeply, the freedom of captaining a ship felt so good to him and he dreaded getting back on Atlantis and stepping back in as commander, he felt he belonged in the seat of lantean ship.

But he dismissed the thought, it did not do to dwell on such things.


	29. Chapter 29

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Chapter Twenty Nine**

**The Jackals Bite**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth - SGC**

It was an ordinary day within Stargate Command, five off-world teams were off on missions and three diplomatic teams had been sent to meet with the Tok'ra, FJN and the Herbidan, now the IOA was out of the picture it was hoped that relations between them could improve.

General Landry was not optimistic about the results, the damage done by the IOA was very large and it would possibly take years to mend fences but they had to start somewhere.

He had been very happy to have the old SG1 team back with their two ships and crews, he counted them among his friends and it was a relief that they were no longer missing.

Teal'c had gone with the Earth ambassador to travel to Dakara and to meet with his son, it had been Jack's idea to send the ambassador with Teal'c as the FJN were mostly unpredictable these days, democracy was not something they grasped easily.

Sam, Daniel and Vala remained on Earth for the time being, the UTAF debrief of both ships crews was still ongoing, the data both ships had accumulated was still being studied and in Area 51 the bodies of both alien humanoids were being studied.

Landry sat reading a directive from the UTAF regarding new off world regulations and the suggestion of new military equipment when the alarm in the base sounded.

"Unscheduled Off-world Activation!" said the dull tones of Master Sergeant Walter Harriman over the base speakers.

Landry stood up with a sigh and made his way quickly from his office into the operations room where the gate was being monitored.

"What we got chief?" Landry asked

"We are receiving Atlantis's IDC Sir." Walter said "The visual link should be up in just a moment."

"Stargate Command this is High Councillor John Sheppard of Atlantis." Said a voice over the radio, "I request a priority channel direct to General Landry, it is imperative my news is relayed to Homeworld Command as soon as possible."

The communication screen above the station turned on displaying the video and audio feeds being broadcast through the gate and Colonel Sheppard, or High Councillor Sheppard as Landry mental noted was the correct title for him, stood there waiting for a response.

"Patch me through Chief." Landry ordered and he then addressed him directly "High Councillor Sheppard we were not expecting a dial in with Atlantis for a few days, what is so important it couldn't wait?"

"I know that sir." John said falling back into Earth military protocols, "but Atlantis has just been attacked."

"Was it the Wraith?" Landry asked concerned "I thought they didn't know the city's location."

"No Sir, it wasn't the Wraith." John said and he looked grave "It was the Alliance Sir, the Lucian Alliance made it to Pegasus and to Lantea."

"That is impossible." Landry said aghast "they do not have the power requirements or the hyperdrive technology to reach you."

"That was what I believed too until a bunch of golden pyramid shaped ships turned up above my planet and decided Atlantis and Lantea made for good target practice General." John told him, "I had my science guys take a look around the wrecks and it has taken them months to get to Atlantis but you should know that they have an Intergalactic Hyperdrive prototype developed by Anubis and what is most concerning is that they were powered by a very rudimentary sub space capacitor cobbled together with old Goa'uld power systems."

"This is most disturbing, I will need to relay this direct to Homeworld Command, we know that the IOA was trying to give them technology I suppose we have been lucky no more has been leaked." Landry admitted "Did you discover anything else?"

"We were able to access a portion of the ships computers and found where the ships originated from and we believe that this strike was the work of one particular clan of the Alliance." John said and he nodded to someone off screen.

"General we have received a data burst from Atlantis giving the coordinates for a secluded system, we have no registered gate at this location." Walter announced.

"Sheppard unless you have any more to report I have to report this directly to General O'Neill we will need to investigate this planet and put a stop to their development of subspace power generation and to find out if any of our other technology was leaked."

"No Sir, we have more pressing concerns ourselves, the Alliance sent out a massive subspace burst revealing our location and the Wraith detected it and now a massive fleet is on its way."

"I shall inform General O'Neill of your impending situation." Landry told him "He might be able to get you some further supplies."

"Good hunting General." John said nodded and the gate deactivated.

"What are you orders Sir?" Walter asked expectantly.

"I don't know Chief, I need to call General O'Neill." Landry said and he stalked back up the stairs to his office and picked up the red phone that now patched directly to the Valliant rather than the US President.

**Milky Way Galaxy – unknown star system – former Anubis Research lab**

The moment General O'Neill had been informed of the Lucian Alliance attack on Atlantis using technology they believed that Alliance should not have he had immediately ordered the _Sun Tzu_ and _Elizabeth II_ to the location Atlantis had taken from Alliance ships.

If the Alliance had further technology augmented by Anubis's part ascension knowledge this represented a clear threat to Earth security and so a swift response was called for.

Jack would have preferred to have sent a seasoned captain like Generals Carter or Mitchell but their ships were at Olympiad undergoing a repair and decontamination, and he did not want to have the captain another vessel as he was sure the shaky alliance of nations would not stand for it, but the future of the UTAF was a problem for a different day.

Captain Copping of the _Elizabeth II_ was leading the strike against the Alliance research planet and both he and he fellow captain dropped out of hyperspace on outer edge of the system and initiated the cloaking technology retrofitted from two damaged Jumpers from Atlantis but they were nowhere near as reliable as they should be yet.

When they arrived they found the system empty with no signs of Alliance activity or any energy signatures.

But as they believed that the one desolate but breathable world was where the half-ascended Goa'uld had lived after been cast out of the Ancient's while he rebuilt his forces it would not be a surprise to see that any installation of his was shielded.

Four teams were sent down to the planet surface to explore, the Sun Tzu discovered an anomaly in the surface where their sensors could get no readings at all, something that was odd as they couldn't even detect the land under the ground, so the teams converged on this point.

It took over an hour for them to locate the entrance to the complex under the surface and what they found inside were many research laboratories and were full of technology much of which was obviously Anubis-Styled with the mesh of Goa'uld and Ancient technologies.

They found new data brought here by the Alliance, it was one of the first concept designs of the Sub Space capacitors designed by Doctor McKay and General Carter, but the concept design was flawed. Another technology they found was an Intergalactic Hyperdrive which was a standard Goa'uld variant but had been improved with Ancient Lantean knowledge, it was a technology Anubis had abandoned instead focused on improving the interstellar hyperdrive.

The teams had been able to get a limited amount of data from the complex's computer core before a subroutine activated detecting their attack on the core and then the complex came to life, the rooms began to seal, bulkheads lowered and shields blossomed covering the walls, ceilings and floors.

Deep within the planets molten core something began to change and it was immediately detected by the _Elizabeth II_ in orbit.

"Captain Copping!" called the sensor operator urgently "I am detecting spikes of energy coming from the planet core, and they are increasing."

"Lock on to our teams and beam them aboard!" Copping ordered "and tell _Sun Tzu_ to do the same."

"Sir we cannot lock onto their transponders and the sensors cannot get through the shielding of the complex!" the operator cried pressing buttons furiously trying to penetrate the shielding but it was futile.

The planet's surface began to crack and a dangerous red glow could be seen even from orbit.

"Did we receive any of the data the teams were beaming up to us?" Copping asked his crew.

"Yes Sir, we received some but the transmission got cut off suddenly and then the power fluctuations started in the planet core." An officer said.

"Send a message to _Sun Tzu_, tell them to leave the system while we stay behind and try to rescue our teams." Copping ordered, just as his orders were being followed the power levels in the surface spiked even hire and then a great beam of energy poured from the surface and impacted the _Elizabeth II _"What was that!"

"Sir planetary defences have just become visible, the energy of the planet core is being channelled into some kind weapon." The sensor operator said "Our shield strength is down to sixty percent."

"Evasive Actions!" Copping ordered his navigation officer "Get us closer to the planet but keep us out of their weapons path, two more hits and they will destroy us."

_Sun Tzu_ jumped into hyperspace to flee the area as Copping ordered and the _Elizabeth II_ began to accelerate and move erratically to prevent any weapons locking onto it, the Daedalus-Class was not the most manoeuvrable but it could travel fast when needed.

"Fire a full power lance of the forward plasma beam battery, aim it directly at the complex!" Copping told the weapons officer.

"Sir that could kill our teams." He said weakly.

"If we do nothing they will die anyway." Copping said in a hard tone, "if we can break through the shielding we might be able to get them out before that planet explodes."

Acting on his orders the navigation officer piloted the ship closer to the surface just skimming the outer atmosphere and there was a build-up of friction on the underside of the ships shield but he kept it on its course.

The weapons officer targeted the location of the underground and shielded complex and diverted the weapons full power capabilities to the forward battery and bright white lance of plasma shot out and impacted the ground and began to pierce from the solid rock and after a minute it reached the location of the complex and impacted the shield.

Another beam of the unusual planetary defence weapon shot out and missed the ship by a few inches and only grazed the shield.

The planet's surface was now covered by molten lava and incredible amounts of heat was pouring out and the planetary plates were breaking apart at the seams.

"Sir the core is going critical! And sensors are not reading any fluctuations in the shield strength. It is drawing power directly from the core like the weapon!" the sensor operator said urgently "Sir we need to move now!"

Copping ground his teeth in frustration knowing he would be looking men and women under his command "Can we stay and beam them out just as the planet explodes?" he asked.

"No, the shields would fail, our emitters would burn up under the strain, we would need a zpm." He said "Sir we need to jump now!"

Copping nodded "take us out and jump us into hyperspace."

He was not happy and had just lost some good members of his crew and that of the _Sun Tzu_.

_Elizabeth II_ made the jump to hyperspace as the planets core and surface integrity reached critical levels and began to explode and made the jump successfully.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – UTAF Carrier Ship Valliant**

The _Sun Tzu_ had arrived back at Earth and quickly reported what has transpired at the research base of the former ascended being, _Elizabeth II_ had arrived back only twenty minutes later reporting that they had lost the teams from both ships when the planet exploded.

Information was scarce on what the Alliance had found within Anubis's Research Complex, but they knew the Alliance had gained a rudimentary knowledge of Subspace Capacitor technology and the start of Interstellar hyperdrive technology, that added to the defence systems built into the planet meant the Alliance could possibly more powerful than they knew.

The only good news they had found out had been that they believed that the knowledge gained from the research station was only shared with a small faction of the Alliance and so far they believed that the entire faction had been killed over Lantea or destroyed when they tried to make the jump to hyperspace.

Subspace Capacitor technology was a great step in human ingenuity and the concept designs that the Alliance had acquired, presumably through the IOA, were flawed and could not work, but the basic principles of the technology could be gained from them and the Alliance had managed to construct a number of the devices to power their vessels.

The Lucian Alliance was getting bold they had attacked two of Earths outposts where they sourced materials used for their ships and technologies, and the attack on Atlantis had been thwarted but had resulted in a massive battle with the Wraith which had resulted in serious damage to _Apollo_ and minor damage to _Daedalus_.

Jack had sent _Ares_ and _Majestic _to help them as they were fastest ships in the fleet and they had arrived just after the battle had ended but the Wraith now knew where Atlantis was and they were now a clear and present threat to the city and the settlement.

The World Council had been briefed on the current situation and they wanted a full report on all Alliance activities and they wanted the fleet to begin systematic attacks on the Alliance, it was time Earth went on the offensive.

With these new orders Jack had summoned every ship captain of the Earth Fleet and General Landry brought aboard the Valliant. Four ships of the fleet had been in the Pegasus Galaxy but Jack had them gated to Earth from the city along with High Councillor Sheppard.

Captain Carter of the _George Hammond_ and Captain Mitchell of the _Odyssey_ had been the first to arrive as they had been in Area 51 and Colorado respectively.

Captain Cháng'ān of the _Sun Tzu_ and Captain Copping of the _Elizabeth II_ had beamed aboard from their own ships, Captain Drake of the _Prometheus II_ was also in attendance having just got back from the Pegasus Galaxy after serving as a transport ship for the Institute.

Captains Caldwell, Ellis, Hewitt and Alton who captained the _Daedalus_, _Apollo_, _Ares_ and _Majestic, _along with Shepard and Landry had arrived together on a Puddlejumper brought from Atlantis through Stargate Command.

The conference room aboard the _Valliant_ was not unlike the room aboard the Ares where the Institute had brought the leaders of the world for the signing of the new charter, it was complete with recording and holographic projection technologies and it was a modern but comfortable place.

Jack entered the room and saw that the many people within the room had clustered together in small groups, but they looked up when he entered expectantly.

"Let's all take a seat shall we." Jack said indicating the circular table.

The Captains, General Landry and High Councillor Sheppard took their seats and sat patiently.

"The Lucian Alliance is stepping up its game and the World Council wants us to begin to strike back." Jack told them "Our history in this universe in the last few years has shown that when faced with an enemy we can win despite all odds. The Alliance is not a single enemy, they span countless systems and we need to undermine their control."

"Where do you plan to start General?" Captain Alton asked, she was the only female captain other than Carter.

Jack turned to General Landry, "Have the teams you sent off world found the Lucian Homeworld?"

"No," Landry said frowning "They have made contact with the Alliance and are still investigating, the search has gotten easier with Vala back, her connections were something we needed."

"Well good to know her criminal past helps us." Mitchell sniggered "Usually it just causes a headache."

Sam smiled at him both obviously remembering a shared experience, and Jack felt a sharp emotion shoot through him but he shook it off.

"Have they passed on any intelligence that we can use to strike at them strategically?" Ellis asked "We need targets that will hurt their organisation."

Landry considered briefly before he answered "I think we can come up with some, when they next check in I will have them look into this."

"Only as a secondary objective!" Jack said firmly "We need to know the home world, their capital world and the source of the Alliance control, that is more important than their farming worlds."

"Have you thought about trying to plant someone into their ranks?" John asked.

Jack looked at him and noted briefly that he was wearing the white Lantean uniform complete with wrist cuffs and he did not look like a military officer, at least not by his clothes, it was a statement in itself.

"We tried once with Mitchell and Vala but it failed." Jack said but he considered it "But they were easily recognised, as members of SG1 their faces are known."

"You could send out someone who is well versed in counter intelligence and infiltration." Drake said, "Of course it will need to be someone you trust, but someone who will not be known to the Alliance or even to the IOA before they were removed."

Jack considered the idea and found it agreeable, of course it would need some work but it was possible.

"General you should send more than one operative." Captain Hewitt said "With the way the Alliance works one could end up dead, better to have more than one working for us but they should not know it."

Jack nodded "I think that would be wise, they will need to learn some Goa'uld and Ancient language and also how to fly a cargo ship at the very least too."

"Sir, we will need the Tok'ra to help us." Sam said "infiltration is one of the best skills, and they might be able to help us install operatives with a believable back story."

"Our relationship with the Tok'ra is still cold, the insult of the IOA is still fresh in their mind." Jack told her, "But it might work, I shall see."

"What about Atlantis?" Caldwell asked, "Will the Alliance continue to be a threat to us, will they attack again?"

"We do not believe so." Sam told him "From the data we were able to recover it seems that attack was the work of one small faction of the Alliance and I do not think they shared their discoveries. But you should still be wary of them."

"Councillor Sheppard" Jack said making sure to use the title "the World Council would like an update on the Borealis, they have plans to use the city in the future but first it needs to begin repair and rebuilding the towers."

John smiled "We are due to fly the city from Eldaria to Lantea in the next few days. Henrietta Cassidy from the Institute and McKay are doing what I hope to be final checks. They keep insisting on more work to get it ready, and keep disagreeing. I am starting to think they are trying to outdo each other."

Sam laughed a little, something that made Jack smile to himself but he saw that the other people in the room groaned, most of them had met Doctor McKay and knew how irritating he could be.

"If it makes the trip to Lantea successfully, will you then fly it to Earth?" Jack asked.

"I am sure my science teams will want to run a load of tests but I do not see a problem with shipping it over once they are satisfied. I personally have no need of _Borealis_ in Pegasus anyway.

"See that it is done. Captain Alton I would like for you and Captain Caldwell to return to Earth as soon as possible, Caldwell we need to start an upgrade on _Daedalus_ to bring her in line with the rest of the fleet." Jack said "Captain Ellis the same is true for you the moment your ship is fully operational I want you back."

"What about Atlantis Defence?" John enquired.

"The Ares will remain until the _Daedalus_ returns; _Prometheus II_ will still be used to ship support to you too." Jack promised "With those Lantean War ships of yours and the Traveller ships you should be fine, but if you notice any change on the long range sensors let us know as soon as you can."

"Our Auroras are not all operational sir and we are almost out of drones, the Grodin weapons are still bound to the zpm for power." John protested, obviously not happy to lose two ships.

"I understand that John but with the repair station under Lantea working you should be able to start repairs and if you can get Rodney working on modifying those ships all the better." Jack told him leaving no room for argument.

The meeting went on for three more hours with Jack laying out plans for the fleet and for Earths exploration and operations and once it was over they were all dismissed.

John headed for the Jumper he, the captains and Landry had arrived in and as the rear hatch lowered Captain Carter jogged into the hanger.

"Captain Carter!" John said with a smile, "Did you want a lift to the SGC, we have the room."

"Nope I am taking some leave for a few weeks, after our jaunt across the universe and back I need a break." Sam said returning the smile, they got along very well and had done since she had been commander of Atlantis. "I was hoping to grab a ride all the way to Pegasus?"

John blinked surprised by her request but wasn't going to deny it "Sure, the more the merrier, most of the people back home will be happy to see you, the rest you will not have met."

"Great." Sam beamed "I think Daniel will want to come too, as well as Vala."

John shrugged "bring them along we can use some new faces, although Vala will have to keep her hands to herself, I don't want anything going missing."

"She will." Sam promised "Although she might steal something to get Daniels attention away from the Atlantis database."

"Are they still not together?" John asked surprised, with the time spent in the Black Eye Galaxy he thought they might have.

"No." Sam said mischievously, "But they do like each other, it's just one of them is being pig headed."

John shook his head, he realised that Sam had the same kinship with Daniel, Vala, Teal'c and Mitchell that he himself had with Ronon, Teyla, and Rodney. The relationships of the off world teams were a long lasting thing and he knew that more than one person had found their partners in them.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Hyperspace – Generational Ship Judia**

Since boarding the space faring ships of those the mother superior had called Pilgrims but Beth had soon learned that these people called themselves Travellers. She had been brought aboard the _Judia_ the ship captained by Litilia and true to her word had been put to work in the medical facilities with Phelan the ships doctor.

Beth liked the work as it kept her busy, especially within the hyperspace which she knew the ship entered when travelling vast distances.

Phelan was not a Traveller himself, he had originally stowed aboard the ship a few years ago but had been found and the captain was going to jettison him to space when he revealed himself to be a physician and she put him to work immediately.

Life aboard the _Judia _was mostly quiet and peaceful as they travelled through the whirling blue vortex of space but the crew became tense when they dropped out for supply runs or to trade or even to carry out maintenance on the ship.

The Travellers feared meeting the Wraith, a species that even Beth knew to dread even though she didn't know what they were or had ever seen one, all she knew about them was that they fed on humans, but so far they had not met them.

Once they had been in range of a lone small ship of the Wraith but it had left them alone, the crew spoke of the encounter and said it must have been the hybrids and they whispered that it was unnatural to ally with it.

Phelan was an oddity in himself, and Beth was always trying to get more information out of him. He had a number of tattoos over his body, she had seen them once when she had to wake him for a medical emergency as he usually kept all of his skin covered.

He had black hair which was streaked with grey above both of his ears and the most startling green eyes, but he was a very good at his job using the technology on the ship which he had learnt to use but mainly using medical equipment of his own which he had brought with him.

Beth was sorting through the medical equipment and sterilising some of the untensils when there was a knock on the bulkhead.

"I was looking for Phelan?" said a young woman wearing the typical attire of the Travellers.

"He is doing he rounds at the moment." Beth said apologetically "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"I have been really tired recently and I keep feeling sick." She said shyly and she looked around nervously before saying quietly "I have also not begun my cycle it's been four days."

Beth nodded at ease with the conversation and realised what the woman was asking without her actually voicing the question.

"You want to know if you are pregnant?" Beth asked understanding.

"I suppose I do." The woman said and she blushed.

"What is your name?"

"Ayanna." She replied "Is there a way to tell?"

"Of course." Beth smiled reassuringly and she walked over to one of the drawers and pulled out a box which Phelan had said contained Lantean Pregnancy tests but he did not use them preferring his own method, reading the box she read that the instructions and saw that it could give false results.

The Travellers due to their time they spent aboard their ships suffered from a number of medical conditions and pregnancy strained the body more than what Phelan said was normal on a planet.

She walked over to another part of the room and pulled out a small hand held device made of some greyish material that was rough and had a spider web design on the back "This device should be able to detect any signs of pregnancy. She held the device over the Ayanna's belly and a white light appeared and scanned her.

Phelan often used this device to diagnose medical problems and she had seen it work on a pregnant woman not a day after conception.

Once the device emitted a low beep she put it back on its cradle which was linked up to a computer system which brought up its results in a language Beth could not read before Phelan's own program translated it into Traveller standard, which Beth was beginning to learn quickly as if she knew it already.

"Positive." Beth said smiling "You are four days along Ayanna."

The girl sighed contently and smiled "Thank you."

"I will inform Phelan of your condition, but in the mean time you should start taking these." Beth said and she went to the medicine cupboard and pulled out a small packet of leaves and counted out seven small pills from the Lantean medicines. "Take one of the leaves and steep it in boiling water and drink it every morning, it tastes bad apparently but it is very good for you and will relieve the nausea. Take one of these pills every day with a meal, they will also help your baby grow."

"Thank you." Ayanna said taking the medication and she left smiling the whole way.

Not long after Phelan returned "I saw Ayanna walking past, she seemed very happy and I saw her carrying medication."

Beth looked up from where she was working "She is pregnant, I gave her the usual supplements and confirmed it on the scanner you use."

He nodded and went and took out the large ledger which details all of the Travellers medical history and began to note what she said down.

"How far along?" he asked "And is he the father?"

"Four days." Beth replied looking up and she noticed the odd tone he used when mentioning the father, "I didn't ask who the father is, do you know?"

He shook his head gruffly "He who calls himself Reaper. He is not a Traveller that I know but he is often not aboard the ship and what he does…"

Phelan stopped talking and set about working at another station and ignored her further questions and soon Beth gave up, he was often odd like that.

The Travellers would be soon arriving on a world many of them loves to visit, apparently it was a great place to visit and they always went there in time for something called _Patrocinium Desto_ which according to some of the Travellers was a great spectators event and one or two of their own would be competing.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! I want to know what you think!

Images of the various ships can be found on my Twitter Account,

Just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and scroll through the posts and you will find images of the Daedalus-Class, Ares-Class and the new _Prometheus-Class_

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	30. Chapter 30

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**/**********************************************************************************\**

**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Chapter Thirty

Risen from the Grave

**Pegasus Galaxy – Atlantis **

Sam has been on Atlantis for a couple of days and she had found herself relax within hours of being back on the city. She had loved being in command of the city for the year in which she had been sent here before being reassigned and given the commission of the _George Hammond_ and her two last SG1 missions, but returning to the city now was a humbling experience.

The ancient city felt alive to her and she still felt a thrill every time she looked out a window or walked the hallways where the Ancient Lanteans once resided, even her own quarters made her think, who had once called this room home.

Daniel and Vala had come through the gate from Earth with her, Daniel had jumped at the chance of travelling to the city and Vala had followed him, the thought of Ancient Lantean treasure too much for her to resist and she had become good friends with Larrin the Traveller Representative to the High Council.

Military protocol in Atlantis were very relaxed and she had forgotten how much she enjoyed it, she was used to being the steely captain of a battle-carrier in Earths Fleet but here she was merely referred by her military rank but to many of Atlantis she was called Sam or Carter as they were familiar with her.

When Jack had asked her to go to Atlantis in their debrief she had jumped at the chance to visit as it would mean she could access the Atlantis Database so she had brought all of the research and notes she had from her time travelling home for a possible ship configuration to be a lifeline for the Destiny Expedition, and she had been very interested in the news of the small cache of Aurora-Class ships recently discovered on Lantea.

She woke up early and had a quick session in the gym where a small number of Athosian and Earth personnel trained and once she was done she made her way up to Stargate Operations, it was still early not even Seven in the morning Lantea Standard Time and she was surprised to see that John was in his office.

Once she was closer to the door she saw that he was still wearing the same clothes as the day before, she could tell by the creases and the slight shadow under his chin from where he had not shaved.

Frowning with concern she knocked lightly on the doorway.

"John?" she said quietly.

He looked up with surprise and she saw him tuck something metal on a chain into his pocket.

"General." He said with a welcoming smile.

"Are you okay John?" she asked, "You look tired."

"I am fine Sam, just having dreams about someone I would rather no remember." He admitted sadly.

Sam paused but took a seat and looked at him for a moment as they sat in silence, she had heard rumours of feeling between John and a former member of the Expedition and knew that the loss of her had been hard on him.

"Your dreaming of Dr Weir?" she asked attentively, knowing that he probably didn't want to talk about it or anyone digging into his personal life.

He jerked his chin confirming it but he eyes were like steel and she thought he looked pained.

"Do you mind me asking what the dreams are about?" she asked him, "It might help to talk about it."

He considered her before answering "The dreams always differ but mostly I dream of her floating alive in space and trapped only for her to be taken away before I can reach her in a flash of swirling light."

Sam thought that was probably just his guilt manifesting itself from his subconscious, "Do not dwell on it John, from what I read of what happened, it was her decision that trapped her and it was one she did to protect everyone in Atlantis. From what I know of Dr Weir that sounds like the type of thing she would have done."

John pulled himself together and made a show or organising the mess that was on his desk and his watch beeped and he frowned when he saw the time.

"My own issues aside, what's got you up so early Sam?" he asked "Missing your command?"

"No, well not too much." She admitted, she did love her ship and the command "I was hoping that I could go over to the repair station and check out the damaged Auroras?"

John gave her an odd look but nodded.

"Sure, the work teams will be rotated at eight hundred hours, you can catch a ride on one of the transport shuttles." John nodded "Do you need anything else?"

"No, my main interest is on two of the critically damaged aurora's the one with no engines and the one that was gutted in a solar flare." Sam said holding up her tablet showing him a design for a ship "I am trying to find a concept for a relief ship for Destiny."

John had not been expecting her answer and looked shocked by her idea and he looked at it critically.

"I thought the idea was to find an Icarus type planet or use Langara's planet core and use McKay's new dialling algorithm." He asked scrolling through the detailed diagrams of different concepts for the supply vessel. "That is Homeworld Commands last update to us anyway."

Sam paused before answering wondering if she should be honest but decided that she should trust John, "officially it is, but in reality they do not think that they will wake back up. We are not even searching for a planet and our relations with Langara are not good."

John sighed and handed back the tablet "So they are stranded with no hope other than your pet project." He did not sound impressed.

Sam understood his feelings, it was the thought of the Expedition stranded in space with no hope of rescue which had made her start her project. She knew that Jack also did not agree but the world council believed them a lost cause and didn't want to devote any resources to them.

"I know, but until we know if they are even alive there isn't much we can do." She said remorsefully even the new governing body of Earth's off world activities still needed word.

Sam stayed and talked to John for a while longer trying to find out more about the way he ran the city and from what he showed her and explained she was surprised to find him juggling two very different methods.

The command and running of the city showed the signs of Dr Weir and her own command structures and he had combined the two with his own flare to make a fully functioning society. Janus Port which was the unofficial name of the mainland settlement was a great accomplishment, and week by week the settlement grew and evolved and Sam thought that it might possibly be one of Johns best accomplishments, and one that did not come from his military career but the High Councillor of Atlantis.

At eight o'clock she packed up her bag and followed the assembled team of Atlantis workers who were travelling to the Repair Station, she was surprised by the Ancient Lantean Shuttle but once aboard she saw that were very similar to puddlejumpers with drive pod technology and a similar control interface but other than that they were very different.

The shuttle took flight and once they were over the water they descended into the water which could be seen through the starboard and post side windows and they passed through the water for a while before arriving in the Repair Station.

Sam looked around with keen interest, the station was a gold mine of Ancient Lantean construction technology and her mind buzzed with the possibilities for a new generation of Earth shipyards but she focused instead on why she had come.

Within the station a large number of scientists, engineers and labourers worked and Sam was shown to a small room with a computer interface system and integrated holographic technology and she sat and pulled out her data crystal and plugged it into the system.

She had worked very hard on her research for a design of ship which could travel the immense distance between Earth and Destiny. So far she had isolated Asgard Ion generators in conjunction with two Ancient Lantean zpm's and if she could get one the power amplifying technology of the Institute would enable her concept to get to Destiny.

The Aurora-Class was the only ship which was large enough to house the necessary power generation so she hoped that one of the damaged ships could be used. Hyperdrive design was simple a Asgard Intergalactic model would be used but she was hoping that the work Amanda Perry and her team did on the ongoing Earth design could be incorporated too.

Engines would again be a hybrid compilation of Earth design with technology both from the Asgard and the Ancient Lanteans, the engines were still a work in process and she needed help to get the design finished.

Sam pulled up the Stations diagnostic system and had it scan the burnt out shell of the Aurora-Class still sitting derelict in the station, the data began to stream to her terminal and she found that it could actually be just what she needed.

Of course if the ship she was designing under the project name Avalon, was to rendezvous with destiny it would need to be able help them. Incorporated within the underside of the ship was a number of the construction machine arms the Station used which could be used to fix hull breaches.

The Repair-bot aboard Destiny was something she could not create so instead she designed for entire sections of the ship for storage, raw materials needed for the crew of Destiny to get the ship repaired. One technology which was going to help was the nanite infused slurry Atlantis had developed and she added that into the design as well along with the storage tanks needed to store the composite material.

Sam knew that the amount of work needed to get this ship fully designed and then finally produced was huge but she felt they had to start somewhere.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Eldaria**

Borealis sat cradled within a large pit of earth, having been excavated by beaming technology and had been undergoing repairs for over two years and it was now recognisable as a damaged city-ship with the snowflake platform forming the piers like Atlantis fully repaired and whole and the control tower standing in the very centre of the platform alone.

The repair work had taken much longer than most had estimated, the structural integrity had to be high enough to survive flight, city-ships like Atlantis and Borealis were very fragile and could only survive travel through space due to the city-shield.

When the Institute had arrived most of the engineers had been reluctant to allow them to help but Henrietta Cassidy was a marvel with the advanced technology fixing problem after problem and had managed to fix damaged stardrive and repair the control relays which fed into the Chair in the Tower.

Conduits ran from the base of the Control Tower where the zpm hub was located and it ran up the tower and out across each of the piers under which was the stardrive, dotted around the base were the shield emitters. All of which had to had a constant source of power, and the conduit had to be able to channel the sheer power of the zpm's.

Rodney had been on Borealis for the last three weeks getting it ready for the trip to Lantea and he and Cassidy had been carrying out all of the final checks and insisting on even more.

"Dr McKay I do believe we are ready." Cassidy said walking down the stairs from the Operations floor of the Control tower to where Rodney sat tinkering with the Control Chair.

"Hmmm…" Rodney said not paying any attention and reading the feedback from the chair to his tablet intently.

"Dr?" Cassidy said louder.

"What." Rodney said irritably wondering what could be so important to distract him from making sure the chair was connected to every system.

"I think Borealis is now ready." Cassidy repeated rolling her eyes.

"No we need to double check the link from the sensors to the chair." He said distractedly tapping away on the tablet as he ran through a program.

"We have checked that link, I insisted on that two days ago and once it was done you had another carried out to check my work." She stated "There is no more for this city that we can do here, and as the _Prometheus_ is no long our support ship we must get this city to Lantea for its own protection."

"Well then we should check the zpm hub and run a full diagnostic on its connection terminal." Rodney said changing his mind.

"Dr McKay" Cassidy said exacerbated "It is time."

Rodney looked at her and gulped when he saw the look, she was not intimidated by him at all as he had learnt when his usual outburst had no effect on her and she had just looked amused when he had got more and more impassioned and his voice higher.

"Fine." He said annoyed, he tapped his radio "Denma, dial Atlantis, we need the Ares here." He said to one of the Traveller security officers assigned to the planet.

"Right away Dr." Came the reply.

"When the Ares is in orbit then we can take this city back to Lantea." Rodney told her "While we wait please carry out a check on the zpm hub and make sure it is fully operational, I will stay and make sure the chair is fully connected to optimum levels."

Rodney turned away to get back to his work and he missed the eye rolling from his new colleague and she walked away leaving him to his work.

**Pegasus Galaxy – UTAFS Ares **

The _Ares_ made the trip to Eldaria in six hours having been scouting a faraway system for what was reportedly a Wraith outpost but had found nothing but a ruined research outpost.

As the newest class of ship within Earths Fleet, Ares still had a lot to prove. She had tasted blood since she had been revealed to Earth having smashed numerous Alliance ships with ease and had taken on four Hive ships and two cruisers and had managed to destroy them with only significant loss of shield strength.

Captain Hewitt sat in his command chair ordering his crew to get to action stations, they were to be ready for any eventuality. On the planet their sensors detected a massive build-up of raw power coming from the location of Borealis.

"Have you got a lock on the beacons for Dr McKay and his science team?" Hewitt asked.

"Yes Sir, we are ready to beam them aboard at the first indication that they are in trouble." Was the reply.

Hewitt nodded, he would have preferred to take Borealis to Lantea using the tractor beam built into his ship but it was much too large for his ship to pull through hyperspace even in its decrepit state.

"Ares this is Dr McKay." A nervous Canadian voice said over the radio.

"We are receiving you doctor, the sensors show that you have powered up the stardrive." Hewitt replied.

"The Stardrive and shield is working at acceptable levels and we have activated the inertia dampeners." Rodney said "I shall begin are ascent now."

"Understood." Hewitt said and he nodded to one of the crew and they pressed a button on their station and the observation window changed displaying data and tracked the city.

Borealis rose from its former grave and it wobbled up and into the upper atmosphere, and then managed to rise itself out into space.

"He is not a good pilot." Applebee said from Hewitt's left and he smirked at his Weapons officer's observation.

The city bobbed a little before it managed to achieve a stable orbit above the planet.

"How is it Doctor?" Hewitt asked over the radio.

"We are in the green Captain." He said energetically and sounded disbelieving "I have plotted the coordinates to Lantea and I am going to take the city to hyperspace."

True to his word the city accelerated forwards and a hyperspace window formed in front of it and after a wobbly moment the city jumped into the window and disappeared from sight.

"Okay plot a course for the midway point." Hewitt ordered "We need to make sure that Rodney has the ship on course and makes it the whole way."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Hyperspace – Borealis**

Rodney sat on the Control chair with his eyes closes in deep concentration, he would not admit it aloud or to anyone but piloting what remained of the city was nerve raking and took every ounce of his concentration and he sometimes felt that control would slip from his grasp momentarily.

Borealis had made a successful jump into hyperspace and sped through the whirling dimension at a fraction of its optimum speed, but so far there had been no problems.

Henrietta Cassidy was busy running from location to location making sure that everything was working as it should, they were using three used zpm's to get the ship to Lantea and there was some concerns they would be depleted before they arrived.

The concerns were for nothing as after only an hour the city alerted Rodney that they were reaching their destination coordinates so he pushed the thought of dropping out of hyperspace through the neural interface and the stardrive responded and the city exited hyperspace in the Lantean System.

"Borealis this is Flight." Said the relieved tones of Chuck from Atlantis's Stargate Operations, "We have detected your approach."

"Rodney how are you doing?" said the impatient tone of John.

"Fine thank you very much!" Rodney snapped but now he was nervous he did not think he could safely land this city on the water.

The city wobbled because of his unease and alarms began to sound.

"Doctor!" someone shouted in the room.

The control chair died and the light went out and it was brought back upright.

"What happened" Rodney shouted looking around panicking, but the shield was still operational and life support functioning.

"Doctor McKay?" Matthew Hartman called concerned "I am detecting no errors with the chair, why isn't it working?"

"You must be reading it wrong." Rodney snapped and he snatched his tablet from the floor and connected it to the chair control systems to see what was wrong.

Meanwhile he was aware that Cassidy was talking into her radio to John on the planet below.

"We do not know what is wrong at the moment, Doctor McKay is looking into it." She said "We are safe and have a stable orbit, give us some time to find out why the chair is not working."

There was a pause and then she replied.

"It's a thought, but he won't like it but we will try."

Rodney brought up all the recent flight data looking for any sign of the fault which stopped the chair from working but found none, so he sat back in the chair and tried to get it to work but it refused to recline or light up.

"McKay." Cassidy called from her spot in front of the chair.

"What is it, I am a bit busy." He snapped agitatedly.

"Let Matthew try." She said bracingly.

"What! Why?" Rodney all but shouted in indignation.

"You have the artificial gene." Cassidy said "he does not and his aptitude level for the ATA gene related technologies is on par with the High Councillor. The only reason he did not sit in that chair is because you refused to allow anyone but you sit in it."

Matthew walked forwards to get to the chair but Rodney held up a hand stalling him.

"There is something wrong with the chair, I am not the problem!" he cried.

"Well there is one way to really be sure." Cassidy said firmly not backing down "Officer Hartman relieve Doctor McKay now."

"The Institute has no authority here." Rodney said cooling not believing what she was saying, how could it be his fault?

"No, but we were charged with getting this city safely to Lantea and that is what we will do." Cassidy said tersely "Do I need to radio Atlantis and have Sheppard order you out of that chair or will you just stand up and let us test the theory."

Rodney stared at her for a long moment before throwing his hands up "Go on then," he said and he got out of the chair "knock yourself out, the chair is not working."

Matthew looked hesitant but Cassidy gave him a look of encouragement and he walked forwards and sat on the chair.

Instantly the chair lit up and reclined much to Rodney's annoyance and dismay.

"But that's-"Rodney began to say but Cassidy spoke over him.

"Matthew can you land this city?" she asked "or do we need to get Sheppard or Beckett up here?"

"No I think I can." He said and he closed his eyes and the city began to move again just as the Ares dropped out of hyperspace beside them. "It's just a very real Playstation game." He muttered under his breath.

True to his belief Matthew was able to pilot the city though space and then it swivelled on its axis and the stardrive was aimed directly at the planet surface and he lowered it into the atmosphere. The heat build-up was straining the weaken shield emitters and the stardrive was struggling to maintain their speed and propulsion but the city remained on course and steady and he was in complete control.

"We have just exited the upper atmosphere." Cassidy called happily.

"Drop the shield Hartman." Rodney said trying to regain his control of the situation "It will give you more available power for a smoother landing."

The city-shield disappeared and the speed Borealis was descending at slowed into a very stable and stead descent and it was now gliding through the sky and from the Tower they could see the cities older sister blinking in the sun.

"I will set us down between the mainland and Atlantis." Matthew said, and the city moved towards the area and he lowered it even further and before reducing the stardrive power to minimal levels and the city hit the water with only a slight shake.

Rodney stood shocked, the landing hand almost been perfect and it was the young man's first time piloting the ship and he felt a great stab of jealously, he wished he had the stupid gene naturally.


	31. Chapter 31

Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Thirty One**

**A Strange Discovery**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – Stargate Command**

Stargate command was always a busy place, with more teams going off world than ever in the history of the program, the local civilian population near the mountain had noticed that more and more foreign military personnel often visited Colorado when on leave.

News outlets had also caught onto the story and had investigated wondering why the US Airforce were hosting military officers from foreign nations and had reported that NORAD was now a place for deep surveillance and monitoring of the people of the world.

The US Government however released information stating that the mountain was housing a multinational training operation for specialised military actions, it was not completely untrue as it was a multinational operation but they were being deployed off world which was a specialised military operation.

It was a normal day within the complex, over thirty teams were off world, SG teams 1-15 were scouting new worlds that the people of Earth had never visited and worlds that were familiar to them for various reasons. The fifteen other teams were specialised units sent out to carry out surveillance, Reconnaissance, Infiltration and sabotage of the Lucian Alliance forces.

The _Sun Tzu _and _Elizabeth II_ had been sent on a mission to strike at the Alliances greatest interest. The growth and distribution of Kassa with which they are able to control the everyday people of the people they subjugate.

Using the information gained by the intelligence operatives General O'Neill had sent off world to locate possible targets for Earth to strike at and they had six planets from which the Alliance grew the dangerous maize.

Each ship was sent alone to each planet under the prototype cloaking technology and used the beaming technology to remove all traces of the crop from the planet's surface before leaving and repeating the same on their other targets.

While this had been going on the specialist units had managed to destroy two factories and one shipyard controlled by the Alliance.

The alarm in the complex sounded as an unscheduled dial in connected to the Earth gate.

"Are we detecting an IDC?" General Landry asked walking up behind Walter.

"Yes Sir." He said "I am reading Colonel Taylors IDC."

"Open the Iris." Landry ordered and the Sergeant placed his hand on the scanner and the metallic iris retracted from the gate revealing the open wormhole.

SG:9 all ran through the gate and down the ramp supporting one of their team.

"Medical team to the gate room!" Landry said into the communication system "Colonel Taylor what happened?"

"It was the Alliance Sir, they ambushed us in the village, they killed thirty of them sir and they were armed with our own weapons." The Colonel shouted as he gave his injured man to one of the medical team.

Landry frowned, "Debrief in thirty minutes' colonel, get your selves down to the Dr Lam for a check-up."

"Sir we are picking up a radio signal." Walter said frowning trying to listen.

Landry had a sinking feeling and looked in front of him and saw that the wormhole was still active and he suddenly knew something was going to happen.

"Close the Iris!" Landry ordered and he smashed his hand into big red button that controlled the blast doors.

The blast doors began to descend in front of them and the ones to either side of the gate room began to close but not before they saw something streak through the wormhole and going through the middle of the closing Iris.

Whatever the object was it was dangerous and Landry didn't waste a moment and dropped to the floor and a massive explosion went off and the entire complex shook, the emergency shielding within the gate room activated as the bulkheads closed but some of the explosion got through.

Landry coughed trying to get back up and he winced as he felt the pain in his chest where he was sure he had broken a rib or two.

"Chief?" he spluttered and he turned and saw Walter laying on the floor next to him with blood running down his face.

He pulled himself up to and managed to press the necessary buttons to access the base's internal sensors to see what was going on in the gate room as the cameras had been destroyed. There was no life signs and the iris was closed.

Content that Earth was safe for the time being he fell back down to the floor and passed out.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – Stargate Black Site holding facility. **

Diego Garcia was the property of the United Kingdom but the United States had opened a Military Base on the island in the seventies and it was this military base where the IOA, Lucian Alliance were being held since they have been arrested by the Institute.

It was kept a secret to all but the World Council, General O'Neill and Director Greyson, they still thought there were other Alliance members that they had never discovered operating on Earth and they did not want them sprung from their prison.

The prison was staffed not by the US military, or that or the UK or UTAF but it was Torchwood who kept watch on the prison with their private military company Blackbriar maintaining its security, and agreement was made by the World Council and Homeworld Command with Director Greyson in light of their formation.

Sitting in a cell alone and kept secluded from everyone else was Carl Strom former head of the IOA and he alone had set the IOA down the path of betraying Earth to the Alliance. He had only been caught because of the damned British Institute who had been operated without the proper oversight.

He supposed if he had left the Elizabeth II alone and not planned to have it ambushed and handed over to the Alliance then he would never have been discovered before he got what he deserved from the Alliance, but he regretted nothing.

Even within his prison he was not without his allies, he knew the Alliance still has some operatives that he had not been privy to and he had his own contacts, mainly some of the former NID people that had never been rounded up.

His cell was monitored twenty four seven via cameras but what the Blackbriar goons did not realise was that he was often visited by members of the Alliance who used Holographic projection to appear within his cell and they somehow stopped the cameras while they were there.

The red lights in the cameras blinked out and there was a swirl of colour in the centre of the room a hologram materialised.

"Strom." Said the man in front of him.

He was wearing a trench coat and a white mask to conceal his identity, even carl did not know who he was.

"Mr Escher." Strom nodded in greeting.

"I should thank you for your intel on the operations of Stargate Commands security." Escher said "We launched a propelled bomb through the gate after a SG team went through and their shield device was deactivated."

"Was the facility destroyed?" Strom asked.

"We do not know, but our operatives on other planets have said that no SG team has been seen for hours but they might just be on planets we have no operatives on." Escher shrugged, "We have no eyes within the SGC or Homeworld Command any longer so news is pretty thin."

Strom nodded, all of the Alliance and IOA informers were gone which was an inconvenience now. "So how is the plan to get me released for this prison?"

Escher didn't even hesitate "Plans are being made even now Mr Strom, some of my sources have said that the World Council is making preparations for the court hearings for all of you, I have people ready to help get you out of this mess."

"Our agreement still stands?" Strom asked urgently standing up.

Escher looked at him shrewdly, his eyes the only thing visible through the mask, "Yes Mr Strom you will still be installed as the president of the United States and you may even become leader of this new World Council but remember Mr Strom it was I who put you there."

"When will this happen." Strom demanded eagerly wanting out of this prison.

"Patience Mr Strom." Escher said and he dematerialised in a swirl of colours and the cameras reactivated.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Homeworld Command **

The attack on Stargate Command could have been much worse than it had been, only five people had died and they had all been within the gateroom when the missile had exploded. But it was the number of injured base personnel that was much higher, and the base structure had been damaged in the explosion.

General Landry was had a number of internal injuries and had been rushed to surgery once the emergency response teams arrived on site, and he was to make a full recovery as was Walter but he was in a touch a go situation and was closely monitored.

The way Stargate Command had been attacked felt like an inside job, from the data collected they discovered the gate was kept connected after the off world team had stepped through by someone on the other side broadcasting a radio signal through the gate.

Jack thought it most probably was the work of the Alliance but how they had known the weakness in the Bases security bugged him.

He looked out of his office window and couldn't help but smile, being in command of Homeworld Command had its perks, his office overlooked the skies through which the Valliant floated and he saw that they were over water.

Some aboard found it disconcerting but Jack liked it, it was much better than being cooped up in the Pentagon or other military base surrounded by concrete.

The World Council had convened above him and he knew that whatever was being said would mean a headache for him as they would expect him to have a plan of attack. While General Landry was in recovery General Mitchell would take over as interim commander of the base, it would take a couple of days to get the facility up and running again, the explosion had damaged the dialling computer Carter had created.

Outside he saw a sight that brought him out of his thoughts, an odd looking jet was flying next to the Valliant and he noticed that it was equipped with ion propulsion technology and guessed who it was.

"General O'Neill." Said a voice over his intercom.

"Yes Sergeant?" Jack replied pressed the button to patch himself into operations room.

"Director Greyson has arrived and is requesting permission to land." The Sergeant said.

"Granted." Jack said and he straightened his uniform and waited for the Institute director to arrive.

It still irked Jack that he did not know much about the man, the intelligence services of the world had been investigating him and the Institute and mostly they had come up empty, his history was sporadic, they found his education records showing he graduated from Oxford University in England, he had been placed up for adoption and then his mother found him and raised him.

The operatives from the Institute who had been turned over to Homeworld Command who had infiltrated the many Earth organisations in order to apprehend the IOA had been useless. Before they had been handed over the Institute had done something which removed all of their memories of the Institute, their work and any useful information much to many people's ire but they had also buried the families of the detainees and they couldn't be found.

The door to his office opened and Director Greyson walked in.

"General, good to see you." Greyson said shaking Jacks hand, "How can I help you today."

"Interesting ship you arrived on." Jack pointed out "looks like a hybrid ship of interstellar ship technologies with contemporary jet design."

Greyson smirked "It is one of our newer transport vessels, it's called a Quin-Jet, they were designed to operate both in and out of the atmosphere and they have limited hyperdrive capabilities, our reliance of the our old Goa'uld cargo ships is at an end."

"I wasn't aware that you could fly." Jack stated and he knew it was a transparent dig for information.

"There is a lot you do not know about me General." Greyson stated amused "I know you might be interested in the Quin-Jet, but the miniaturised ion propulsion is incredibly expensive to produce, we have a number of them but already I am thinking of scrapping their production as they are not cost effective, but they are a step forward in our planets advancement."

"You know I wouldn't mind getting a look at your facilities one of these days." Jack said "Just to see what other toys you have."

Greyson laughed "but then General I would not be able to surprise you. You are of course welcome to visit the Institute Headquarters in London, we are still undergoing redevelopment as the building is incredibly old but soon it will be complete."

Jack knew what he said was the truth, the CIA had been watching the Battersea Power Station closely and he had received a report on the site and many people were very interested to know what was inside.

The building had been bought by Trident Industries, and was being developed into their new Trident Industries Advanced Science Division, or at least that was what the company was doing to the public but now Jack knew that Trident Industries was just a front for the Institute which made sense if you looked at the company's history.

"Well shall we get down to business?" Jack said indicating to the Olympiad reports and other matters of Homeworld Security.

"Of course, I also want to know your thoughts on the impending court cases against the IOA members." Greyson said and he pulled out a tablet from his bag and then looked at Jack pointedly "I first want to discuss Project Oversight."

Jack paused and fought to control his facial expression, that was a top level secret, only a small number of people knew about it.

"I am not aware of any project of that name." Jack lied "What is it?"

Greyson smiled and Jack cursed silently, the man obviously knew.

"It is the codename of your governments research into a particular piece of technology I know the IOA and the top levels of the US government refused to have destroyed."

"That technology is in storage and hasn't been touched in years, what possible need could we have for it?" Jack stated but it was a lie.

"General, I am not trying to catch you out I am actually offering a collaboration. Disclosure is getting much closer and I think we both know that it will be a make or break kind of day when it does."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

With _Borealis_ on Lantea the construction teams that had been devoted to getting her flight ready were now more readily available so they were being put to work in the Repair Station and in Janus Port where they were still expanding the settlement and were now in the process of upgrading the dirt roads and paths to modern roads with pavements and street lighting, they also finished the Jumper docking platform and were finishing the construction of two piers for the sea vessels used for fishing and transport on Lanteas ocean.

The settlement was entirely self-sustaining with power supplied by the underground utility complex, which also housed the water and sewage systems and they were growing food with so much surplus the Athosians had plenty to trade off world.

With Borealis on the water between Atlantis and Janus Port the Generational Ships that had for so long surrounded the settlement while not in use were settled on Borealis out of the way.

John, Teyla and Larrin were doing the routine weekly inspection of the settlement making sure that everyone was happy and there were no problems and for the most part everything was fine, but the three leaders of the three different societies were beginning to sense that they would split in the future and it was getting closer.

"Teyla how goes the work on Athos?" Larrin asked as they walked through the children's school, "Meinmarco told me he was helping with some of the monitoring systems that are being installed."

"He was kind to offer his help." Teyla said sincerely and she smiled as she saw Torren in one of the classrooms and he looked very happy. "The work is going very well, the market place is complete and now so is the security centre which houses our gate." She paused looking uneasy for a moment but carried on "But some of my people would like to build a life for themselves there."

"I have had a request come through to have some building materials sent over." John said ignoring the sting he felt that the Athosians wanted to split away.

Teyla did not like the divide among her people "Only a small number wish to be independent, most love it here as they are free from the Wraith and can live normal lives."

"Perhaps my idea of our three civilisations being joint will not last as a single society, but I hope that should we split from each other we will remain friends and Allies." John told her, "have you told her about that event you told me about Larrin?"

"She has but I cannot imagine such a thing," Teyla replied looking at Larrin "You said that a number of different worlds gather to race across a single planet on machines and compete to win something."

Larrin nodded "That about sums it up, we have been attending the event for a few generations it is a was a very good place to go when we needed spare parks or advanced components, it really is a one of a kind event in this galaxy."

"What about the Wraith?" Teyla asked as they stepped out of the school and made their way to the tavern where Kennan worked, and where many of their peoples relaxed and socialised.

"The planet is off the gate network and one is only installed when the event is open." Larrin said "many of the entries into the competition are from advanced civilisations but we and only two others have ship technologies capable of getting us to the planet through hyperspace."

"Dr Weir once told us there were other advanced civilisations out here which we had yet to meet, I always assumed she was speaking about your people and possibly the Vanir." John said surprised "But I suppose at one time when the Ancient Lanteans were around there was many advanced civilisations, both of your peoples among them."

"My people were decimated and we were driven to be simple folk." Teyla said bitterly "We abandoned our own city out of the Wraith."

"And mine fled to the stars." Larrin said "and it too has its complications as our bodies have degraded over the long periods of time."

That was true, the doctors on Atlantis had found that many of the older Travellers suffered with Muscle Atopy conditions and had cardiovascular problems and even suffered from weakened immune systems which Doctors Beckett and Keller was due to their lives aboard the ships without full nutritional supplements and not enough exercise but was made worse due to the state of disrepair aboard the ships which effected life support systems.

It was these health concerns which were being studied but the Atlantis scientists in collaboration with people on Earth as these were conditions the Fleet Crews could be exposed to, and Earth may one day sent out ships on long term missions and these effects would need to combated, but the Destiny Expedition team could also be suffering from these effects to.

"From what you have described to me Larrin this competition sounds a look like motorbike racing from Earth just on a larger and faster scale." John said offhandedly "They are fast machines which are ridden, On Earth they were the small two wheeled vehicles with a ride on top, you would have seen them weaving between cars when you were on the roads on Earth."

"Yes I do remember them." Teyla said thoughtfully "They do not look very safe."

"No they are not but that is why they are fun." John laughed having owned a bike himself when he was younger.

"And the competition is not safe either" Larrin told Teyla "You race across an entire planet which is a very diverse place and you only have yourself to get you through the course and it does get very competitive, weapons are not allowed but I have seen competitors ram each other to get ahead."

Teyla was shocked by this but she saw Johns grin and gave him a knowing look "You want to compete."

"I am thinking about it." John laughed "But first we must visit this world, Larrin will be going as she has done for years and the roaming ships will be going too. She has kindly arranged for a meet and greet with the High Minister of the world."

"Where is this world?" she asked him looking into one of the small stalls set up by one of her people which was laden with off world wares which could be bought for Lantean Credits, the currency used on Lantea for non-essential items and also luxury items from Earth.

Larrin disappeared within one of the buildings wanting to check on one of her people and left the two of them on their walk.

"It is out in outer rim of Pegasus, the Database shows that the area was not one that the Ancient Lanteans colonised and they never placed gates out in that part of the galaxy so I do not know what sort of world it is" John told her "We have never ventured that far out ourselves."

"How then can they be out there?" she asked "is it safe for us there?"

"Larrin assures me that the world is mountainous, and full of desserts and great caverns and underground tunnels." John shrugged "their civilisation is located within a great mountain, according to Larrin she says the city is comparable to Atlantis and that we it supports life."

John looked around Janus Port critically as they walked through the settlement that had grown so quickly over the last few years and couldn't help but be proud of what the three different peoples had built, looking around he could see small differences to the buildings which were designed by Earth architects could see the influences of Traveller and Athosians culture in them he would be sad to see them break apart.

But true to his military background John had made sure that the settlement was protected even if Atlantis left for whatever reason the settlement could independently defend itself and he had worked with the engineers and architected to find a way of having the settlement protected but not make it look like a military base or fort.

Surrounding Janus Port was a series of underground silos which held the railgun defence batteries which would rise from their cradles and fire should the need arise, also surrounding the settlement was a second series of silos which contained large pylons which would extend from the ground and were actually large relays for the Shield Emitters which sat in the bottom of each silo.

The way the defences had been built had been a massive undertaking for John, the architects engineers and Lieutenant Colonel Lorne who was in charge of all Lantean defence and security, and what they had designed and built was a testament to their belief that a settlement could both be defended and secure while looking like a futuristic portside town which was more of a home and happy place to live.

"Colonel Sheppard" said a voice over the radio.

"Yes Amelia?" John said tapping his ear piece and giving Teyla a look, nothing ever went good for long.

"Sir ART:4 have just reported in." she said and she sounded concerned.

"What have they found?" he asked "it was an uninhabited system according to our probe."

"Yes sir, it is uninhabited but they found something that is interesting, something which has raised concerns." She said, "I think you will want to see what they have found."

"Right, give me twenty minutes and I will be back on Atlantis." John told her and he looked at Teyla, "Well as per usual our inspections are cut short."

John took a brisk walk back to the docking station and stepped into one transport jumpers used for travel between the mainland and the city, he was thankful for discovery of the repair station and the great cache of jumpers and transport ships as it gave them freedom.

He saw five boats floating on the Lantean Ocean which had been brought from earth and powered by small Naquadah generators as the Rodney had refused to allow Earth to pollute this world with carbon emissions and toxic waste. Passing over Borealis he saw the fleet sitting on the piers but he didn't stop and accelerated towards its ancient sister.

As his ship descended onto a docking point on a pier as the transport ship was too large for the jumper bay above Stargate Operations, he wondered what the Atlantis Reconnaissance Team could have found as he had them sent off to a world which had appeared to be insignificant but just needed to be catalogued and documented for the database.

When he arrived in Operations he saw that Captain Pyke was standing waiting for him.

"High Councillor." The captain said respectfully.

John gestured for the captain to follow him to his office "I was told you found something."

"Yes Sir, I have left my team researching it but to be honest this is beyond us." He said and he pulled out his tablet and brought up some images and handed it over "I did not see its significance until it lit up."

John frowned but took the tablet and looked at the images and he thought he would see some sign of settlement or ancient ruins but what he saw was a great black spire covered in writing, as he flicked through he wondered what made it so significant until he got to an image of the spire shooting light up into the sky.

"But that's…" John said trailing off recognising the spire from a description in a briefing from a number of years ago.

"Now you see." The captain said "My science guys are saying that it is the same."

John stood and made his way to the door and called to the operators "Chuck, Amelia, get me Daniel Jackson now, and get Carter and McKay here too."

Both followed his ordered immediately.

"Captain, I want you to return to that planet and take a larger science team with you." John ordered and he saw through the glass wall that Doctor Jackson and Vala were walking up the stairs, "I want a detailed analysis of that spire."

"John?" Daniel said as he stepped into his office "What is it?"

"Go now Captain and I want a report every hour." John directed and the captain left "I just had this brought to my attention." He handed over the tablet.

"But that is just like…" Daniel said aghast.

"What?" Vala said looking over his shoulder, "it's a big needle, as Katesh I had many of them built."

"Did you not read any of the reports?" Daniel asked her sounding resigned "We have seen this structure before."

"Well the Goa'uld like pyramids and needles Daniel, surly you have noticed over the last fifteen years." Vala said rolling her eyes "where was this?"

"It was on a planet within this galaxy." John told them "as far as we know the Goa'uld have never been here, and they certainly have not been to Eden where the other spire was discovered."

"Oh?" Vala said looking the image of the spire lighting up the sky "I have never seen one do that."

Daniel flicked to an image of the writing on the stone and gasped and pulled the tablet away from Vala and began to walk as he studied it.

"Daniel what is it?" Vala asked, "you have that face you always get when you notice something."

John was distracted from their conversation as he heard Doctor McKay and General Carter walking towards his office.

"There was nothing wrong with my flight of Borealis!" Rodney exclaimed "Cassidy was wrong."

"Rodney your synthetic gene allows you to use Ancient technology but to fly a city-ship you obviously need it naturally and need to have a high aptitude for the technology." Sam said and she looked incredibly amused "Perhaps next time you should just let one of the more qualified people sit in it as Cassidy said."

"She overreached her authority here in Pegasus!" Rodney snapped "I am not letting her anywhere near my research or Borealis, her and her damned Institute are wrong…"

"Rodney give it a rest." John said rolling his eyes "Your gene is too weak to truly pilot the more sophisticated Ancient Lantean Technology. You can fly a jumper and use systems, you do not need more than that."

Rodney looked put out but kept quiet.

Sam smiled at John, they had spent a good number of days pointing out that he had failed to pilot the city all the way through the journey and then been locked out by the control chair but today he did not have the patience for his ego.

"Doctor Jackson can you beam those images to the screen please?" John asked, but was ignored as Jackson studied an image so he had to repeat himself.

"Sorry." Daniel said and he fiddled with the tablet for a moment before the large screen in the office displayed the stone spire.

"Hey that looks just like that spire from…" Rodney said clicking his fingers trying to remember the name of the world.

"Eden." Sam finished "But that's impossible."

"Can someone tell me what this is?" Vala asked "What is so special about this Eden?"

"Vala, Eden is the name of the world where some of the Destiny Expedition were left after finding a sign of intelligent life." Sam said "and from the drawings and descriptions the teams gave us when they reported to us, this spire looks just like one of them."

"Doctor Jackson?" John said looking at the doctor who had remained quiet, "anything you would like to share, you seem engrossed with something"

Jackson looked up and he was frowning heavily, "We never got to see the language inscribed on the one on Eden, or at least I didn't, but do none of you recognise this language?" he asked showing a close up of the writing.

"Nope." Vala said dismissively,

"It looks familiar." Sam said "But I don't know where from."

McKay and John also shook their heads.

"We have seen this language before" Daniel said looking at Sam, "This writing is one we have seen only a handful of times." Daniel said and he sounded perplexed "But I never expected to find it potentially out as far as Eden, and that's if it is even the same language."

"Is it an old language?" Sam asked "or one of our dead languages?"

"Sam this language is not from Earth." Daniel told them, "I have seen this language twice, once when we were trapped on Heliopolis and the second in the recordings and images you and Jonas took when you were on P5X-777."

"Heliopolis?" Rodney questioned "But that was the meeting place of the Alliance of Four Great Races."

"Exactly." Daniel said excitedly "This is the language of the fourth member of that Alliance and the one race we have never actually met."

"You're talking about the Furling?" John stated, "The race that is reportedly related to the Ewoks from Star Wars?"

Daniel rolled his eyes "No that's just what Jack thinks they look like; we have not found any evidence to show that they are even small or covered in fur. The point is this language is most definitely Furling."

"We have never found much evidence of their existence in the Milky Way." Sam said looking just as interested as Daniel "the Asgard were from Ida, the Nox from the Milky Way, even the Alterans weren't native and came all the way from Celestis, Its possible that the furling also came from a different galaxy."

"Has anyone looked them up in the database here?" Vala asked "I mean you do have access to the entire database of the Ancients and if they were friends you think they might also have an address."

"I will get Hartman on it." Rodney said before quickly rethinking, "No I will get Cho or Chang from my department to look, I don't what the Institutes help."

"Daniel are you sure these languages are the same? Do you think the Furlings travelled the universe?" Sam said "Is it possible?"

"I am certain; this is a different dialect but I am familiar with the language." Daniel told them "I can even decipher some of the words."

"Are we really saying that the Furling, the elusive final member of that ancient alliance of the Ancients, Asgard and the Nox who we have found almost no sign of have actually left this galaxy to possibly pursue the same question the Ancient Alterans were looking for answers for." McKay said critically, "This is absurd, Eden and its star was created artificially, that is an incredible achievement and as far as we know even the Ancient Alterans and Lanteans or the Asgard have ever done this."

"That may not be entirely true." Sam mused "the Asgard collapsed a star to create a backhole, if they could do that they most probably could create a star, the Aschen created a star once by collapsing a gas giant. Creating a planet, one that is habitable is also possible through terraforming which we have seen too."

"Doctor Jackson, would you mind if I sent you to this world to study this spire or obelisk?" John asked aware that he had not authority over him.

"Not at all, I would like to see it myself." Daniel told him happily "Do you have any other linguists who know the Furling language?"

John looked to Rodney for the answer as it would only be his people that knew.

"None that I know of." Rodney shrugged "We have never needed it in the past."

"Sam, Rodney I want you there too, try and find out what that light actually is." John said "I refuse to believe it is just for aesthetic reasons."

"What about me?" Vala asked "Do I get to go?"

"Miss Mal Doran." John said considering her and the trouble she could get into if left alone, "Yes you may go too."

"What are you doing to do?" Rodney asked

"I have a meeting with the High Minister of this world Larrin wants us to vist." John told him "I am sure we want to meet the advanced civilisations of Pegasus."

**/**********************************************************************************\**

PLEASE REVIEW I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK AND WHERE YOU THINK THIS IS GOING! DO YOU HAVE IDEAS ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD INCLUDE?

As always I write this fic just for fun!

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	32. Chapter 32

Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Thirty-Two**

**Battle for the Protected Planet **

Deep within the Medusa Cascade hidden from the universe the Asgard were busy, they were still building their fleet and preparing to return to their home galaxy stronger than they had been for close to three millennia.

Using the Ancient technology, they had been able to re-sequence their digitised genome that was inputted into the device, and it had undergone a large number of random mutations and creating a diverse number of Asgard genomes.

Diversity was needed as after so many years of cloning themselves the Asgard had achieved a level of degradation and it was what hindered their physiology, and the new bodies created through artificial means were among the tallest and strongest than any living Asgard had ever experienced.

Transferring the minds of the frail Asgard and the minds of those who were stored in the data storage units aboard the station was a slow process, but a number of Asgard had been transferred into the first stage bodies that they had created from the machine, they were only a slight improvement on their former bodies but it was a start.

The Asgard High Council and the top geneticists of their race however had already acclimatised to their new bodies and had moved onto the second stage of clone bodies and would need to spend some time getting used to them before they began the third stage.

Project Valhalla had been conceived many millennia ago in the event that the Asgard faced a situation which would mean their end of their race, the space station was created as a refuge from which they could then recover and then later rebuild their civilisation.

Valhalla eventually faded into myths and legends of even the Asgard, they then passed this on to the humans they protected as part of their belief systems. The Station was older than any living or stored Asgard, dating back long before divide of the Aesir and Vanir.

Even the other three Great Races from the old alliance did not know of the station, although those who had ascended would have discovered it but were forbidden to interact with the lower plane. So the station was entirely secure and it was the first time in its long history that it had been used.

It wasn't built from technology from the height of their sophisticated development, but made of dated technology and designs but when constructed it had been designed with durability in mind. Over the millennium the High Council had ensured its continued existents and when it was finally put to use it was ready and waiting for its creators.

In the years since they had begun to rebuild their race, the station had been upgraded considerably to act as a starting point for the rebuilding of the Asgard Fleet. Now three of the powerful O'Neill-Class Ships had been fully built and were undergoing a series of final checks, and they had also built five Huginn-Class Scout ships.

Supreme Commander Thor of the Asgard Fleet stood overlooking the construction bays which were rebuilding the first in his new fleet and he was glad that things were finally moving swiftly, his own ship, the_ Ragnarok _was the flagship and he beamed himself to its bridge where he began a full diagnostic sequence of all its systems.

In all of his years he had served in the Asgard Fleet he personally enjoyed being the commander of an O'Neill-Class ship, the most powerful Asgard ship ever created, and his new flagship would see many future fights and but he had already begun the project of designing a newer warship, one that would outshine even the O'Neill-class and one which would be feared by their enemies.

Thor wanted to returned to the Milky Way and Earth as soon as possible, he had not agreed with the High Council decision to abandon the universe but had been outvoted, so he had made sure that the Asgard Legacy was installed on the _Odyssey_ before they faked their destruction.

Now with their small number of ships he was hoping that his wish to return to those he considered friends and allies would come to pass but before he could return they needed more information, their surveillance network which extended across the Milky Way and which monitored those planets that fell under their protection could not be accessed from so far away so they needed to return and gather information before they revealed themselves.

The Huginn-Class Scout ships were a little larger than the Ancient Lantean Puddle Jumpers, they were equipped with the fastest interstellar hyperdrives the Asgard had ever built and had sophisticated cloaking and sensor technologies built into them. They weren't armed and had limited shield capabilities but they were a proven design and one that the Asgard had not changed in a millennium.

Once the diagnostics of ships systems were done Thor powered it up fully and it majestically rose from its berth and began to move away from the station.

Thor was aware that many of the Asgard on the Station were watching the _Ragnarok _as he piloted it and when he was outside of the station and in the odd multi-spectrum Cascade he amped up the power to full and executed a number of manoeuvres getting feel for his new ship and found it matching his previous commands.

"Supreme Commander Thor this is Vor." Said a female Asgard hailing the _Ragnarok, _"We are ready to depart Valhalla on your orders."

Thor activated the tractor beams on the bow of the ship which hit the five scout vessels and drew them closer to the hull and once they were firmly in the _Ragnarok's _grasp Thor send a message to the High Council that he was ready to depart and they consented to his departure.

With the agreement of the High Council received Thor powered the ships sublight engines to maximum thrust they began to move away from the station. Specially built into the _Ragnarok_ was an auxiliary propulsion system, Thor input the necessary calculation into the navigation computer and activated the system and his ship executed an FTL jump allowing it to travel through the Cascade towards normal space where it then enter Hyperspace for the Journey to Ida and then the Milky Way.

_**Milky Way Galaxy – Deep Space – Earth Fleet**_

With Stargate Operations currently suspended due to the damaged to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex meant that the off-world teams could not go out and carry out missions and return retribution or even investigate who had attacked them.

General Landry had undergone surgery but had remarkably been relatively unharmed but had been forced by General O'Neill to take leave to recover something which his daughter and ex-wife were very relieved to hear.

With the World Council still not agreeing where Stargate Operations should be run from, they agreed for it to remain in Cheyanne Mountain, so Jack appointed General Mitchell to the SGC temporarily while his ship was undergoing its repairs and maintenance following their trip. Mitchell didn't mind the temporary command and was pleased to have something to do and he was overseeing the updates to the bases infrastructure.

The Alpha-Site was being used as a temporary location for staging Earths off-world exploration missions, and a number of SG teams had been transported to the planet to continue basic operations and their off-world program but it was a stopgap measure.

But one mission was still underway out in the Milky Way.

The Lucian Alliance had conquered a plant that fell under the Asgard's Protected Planets Treaty which had protected the planet and its people from the Goa'uld for generations but with the Asgard gone and the IOA forcing Earth to abandon their charge of protecting these worlds the Alliance had taken it without a fight.

Now with the IOA detained Earth was beginning to protect the planets formally protected by the Alliance and one world was being turned into a new shipyard and major stronghold of the Alliance according to their intel and HWC had decided it was time to act.

The _Majestic_, _Sun Tzu_ and the _Phoenix_ had all been sent to the small world in order to liberate it from the Alliance and since Prometheus II had carried out a brief scout of the system they had an idea that they would be encountering a large Alliance force.

Unlike in recent missions the ships had been told not to enter the system under cloaking technology, instead they were told to take a shock and awe approach when engaging the Alliance. So the captains piloted the ships through hyperspace and exited just above the planet and when they dropped out they had their shields and weapons already raised.

Surrounding the planet were fourteen Ha'tak vessels ranging from the Apophis-Class (the weakest variant), the Sokar-Class (upgraded with more powerful weapons and other systems) and the Anubis-Class (the most powerful variant with best power systems, shields and weapons).

Seven Anubis-Class, four Sokar-Class and three Apophis-Class Ha'tak vessels were identified by the Earth ships computers, thirty Al'kesh surrounded the planet along with close to one fifty Tel'tak's all of which did not detect their arrival before it was too late.

As the ships slipped into normal space, the three Earth ships powered their plasma beam weapons and sent out a flurry of rapid succession beams of plasma which impacted the shields of the opposing vessels at a low yield due to their speed but with each hit they hit cut their shield strength to varying levels depending on the Class of the Ha'tak.

_Phoenix_ powered through the opposing vessels and its shields blossomed under the enemy weapons fire and it closed in on the planet.

"Are you able to get a lock on the DHD on the planet?" asked Captain Palmer, the newest ship captain drafted in by the Allied Terran Forces from the Unites States Air Force and his commission had been rushed through due to the current threat level and due to two of ships of the fleet undergoing maintenance and repairs.

"I believe that they are now attempting the dial out, I am detecting a Subspace event." Said the sensor operator, he quickly imputed a command into his console and a moment later the planets DHD materialised in a storage hold in a bright white light. "Package is aboard."

"Good, now let's put down these rabid dogs so we can focus on liberating this world." The captain ordered, and he pressed a button on his chair.

While the _Phoenix_ beamed aboard the DHD, the _Sun Tzu_ beamed down two hundred armed military personnel around the gate area and to strike at the Alliance forces on the ground and entered the lower atmosphere and began firing on Alliance targets which were clear of the subjugated humans.

"This is Captain Alton of the Terran Ship _Majestic_" said the captain standing looking out the bridge observation window "This planet falls under the Protected Planets treaty, you are to leave the system now and not return, failure to heed this warning will result in the destruction of all Lucian Alliance forced here today."

"Sir I am detecting a massive build-up of power from within two of the Ha'tak's and seven Al'kesh." Said a technician, "their power cores are reaching critical levels."

"Okay, full power volleys of the APB weapons." The captain ordered "Hit them before they get any ideas."

But before they could even acquire two targets _Majestic _shook violently suddenly.

"What was that!" He demanded as his ship shook again.

"Sir they have deployed a countermeasure against us." His first officer sitting to his left reported quickly deciphering the sensor data on his terminal, "I think they are using the mines they have used previously to attack _Odyssey_. But these are more powerful than those, I am detecting a composition of Naquadria and cobalt within them, these mines could cripple the ship."

"Shield strength has been cut by half." Said one of the operators, "and they are still falling."

"Emergency Thrust! Get us clear of the mines and divert any additional power from non-critical systems to shield generators, try to compensate for this bombardment." Captain Alton commanded, "All Railguns are to open fire on the pursuing mines, shoot them down before they get us. Have we got a shot on the opposing vessels?"

"The ships are trying to outmanoeuvre us and are staying outside our lines of fire, but I should have us in position for an attack in forty second Sir." The ships navigator reported as he piloted the battlecruiser into an attack position.

Sparks shot out of junction boxes and systems in the Bridge as they were struck by more of the mines and a number of the enemy ships carried out kamikaze runs at them and their amped up power systems went critical causing devastating explosions that was absorbed the _Majestics_ shields.

True to his word the pilot had positioned the ship in an optimum position and the weapons officers immediately sent out seven volleys of powerful plasma lances crippling four of the ships around them.

"Sir our shields have been depleted entirely, those explosions and the radiation from the mines has pushed the emitters passed their optimum capacity." The sensor operator warned in alarm "Radiation is penetrating areas of the outer hull and has flooded two compartments."

"Seal off effected areas now!" The captain said firmly. "Beam out anyone from those areas and quarantine them if they have been exposed, we need to get the high ground and try and get our shields back up. Send a message to the other ships, warn them of these new mine weapons."

**o-0-o**

_Phoenix_ was on the opposite side of the planet to _Majestic_, and they were engaging a larger number of the Alliance fleet. They had not been aware that its sister ship was under so much strain and was faring much better against the ships as they were facing the weaker classed Ha'taks.

The ships communication operator received the transmission from _Majestic_ and realised the danger the Alliance could pose to them if they had these new weapons themselves, "Captain! The Majestic has been attacked with a new weapon and their shields have been overwhelmed and they need our assistance."

Palmer blanched knowing that their ships were identical in all but name and crew, and this was a clear danger to his own ships and crew, "Can we get to them?" he asked "Most of our targets are now Swiss Cheese, so can we get to them in time?"

"Yes we can but it will take a few minutes, our weapons will be less effective the further away we are and it will harder to hit them." The pilot told him "But it will enable us to get to them and strike at them before this new weapon could damage us like it did _Majestic_."

The captain nodded, "get us back to the other side of the planet, we need to help them in any way we can, even if it is to beam them out before the ships is destroyed."

**o-0-o**

_Majestic_'s shields were down entirely and it left the ship vulnerable, something the Alliance was taking advantage of as they began to try to bombard the ship and a number of shots had hit the hull and created breaches and vented six departments to space but so far they had failed to hit any critical systems and the pilot was keeping them moving and making them a harder target to strike.

The Alliance was losing the fight and the advantage was in Earths favour but this new weapon had surprised them, the only thing that was left to be seen was if the Alliance would succeed in destroying just one of their ships before Earth destroyed theirs.

Piloting Majestic under fire was not easy and the pilot was concentrating very hard in making sure they were outside of range of the enemy ships and was taking evasive manoeuvres and had been able to pull away from the planet in the direction of the sun, they needed time to get their shields back online.

They watched helplessly as they were chased by five of the remaining Alliance Ha'taks and some of their smaller ships, while the other converged on the Phoenix and Sun Tzu.

But as they watched they saw the two Earth ships piloted into an attack formation, flying shoulder to shoulder and they struck out with a hard sweep, their Asgard weapons, missiles and railgun fire cut through the remaining Alliance ships very quickly.

Some of the enemy ships tried to flee, but the captains of the Earth ships were not forgiving and they destroyed them with shots from the APB just as they tried to jump to hyperspace.

With all but the ten ships that were pursuing Majestic neutralised the Sun Tzu broke away from Phoenix and returned to the lower atmosphere of the planet where they would continue to strike and the Alliance ground forces.

"Sir the Phoenix is coming towards us now." The sensor operator reported, "Our shields are back online but only at seven percent."

Captain Alton nodded and smiled devilishly "Well how about surprising them with a two pronged attack." He turned to the pilot, "execute a Roll-Off-The-Top, we will face them head on."

The pilot nodded and gripped the Control Column tightly and the ship began to tilt up above the oppositing ships and executed a 180 degree roll before executing a half loop which righted the ships and they accelerated towards the Alliance.

"Captain Palmer" Alton said opening a channel to his fellow captain, "Lets finish this."

"Agreed." Was the curt reply.

Both ships fired simultaneously and the white hot plasma struck the leading Ha'taks first and they were destroyed in seconds, with the priority targets taken care of they got to work on the more manoeuvrable Tel'tak and Al'kesh.

"Sir I just detected a low frequency Subspace data burst." The sensor analysis aboard the _Majestic_ sounding very unsure of himself "and I do not think that it came from the Alliance."

"Then who was it?" Captain Alton asked wondering if another enemy was about to arrive when they had the remaining Alliance ships on the run, "Who else could be out here other than us and the Alliance."

"I don't know sir, but the data burst came from empty space, and I am not detecting any cloaked Alliance ships out there." They said frowning trying to pin point the location but it had been too sudden for a more accurate location. "Our sensors can detect all but Ancient cloaks, so the FJN and Tok'ra are out."

"Our mission here is still to liberate this planet from the Alliance" the captain retorted firmly, "Whatever that was has now gone, we have a job to do, and then another planet to liberate after."

"But Sir…" the officer tried to interrupt but was cut off by the Captain.

"No!" he said glaring at his officer, "We have to finish clearing this world of the Alliance and only then can we even consider this oddity."

_**Pegasus Galaxy – Obelisk Planet - Research site **_

Doctor Daniel Jackson was standing in the large tent that had been erected in a clearing two hundred feet away from the large obelisk they had discovered.

The Destiny Expedition had reported that the Obelisk seemed to be no more than a rock structure covered in alien writings which would create a powerful beam of light which could be seen for miles around Eden but other than these basic observations they had discovered no more due not being locked out from the main systems at the time.

Atlantis has stationed an entire science team to the planet to try and discover just what this structure was, and with the help of the sophisticated diagnostic tools they had available to them they were able to discover that the beam of light emitted a very low level disturbance in Subspace.

It was hardly noticeable within the background noise of the universe but it was there if you monitored the noise carefully and beneath the many different layers there was a basic but repeating artificial structure.

The language on the obelisk was odd, Daniel had been able to translate the language but a lot of it seemed to be gibberish and he was unable to make sense of it, however some of the writing was legible.

On the lowest part of the obelisk and series of writing told a tale of a young race setting off to explore the universe and discover a meaning to a question that even the Ancient ones had not unravelled, and how the young and savage would follow a path of enlightenment.

Daniel was musing over the term they referred to themselves as. Young and Savage. It was an odd way to refer to a race that was reportedly one of the advanced to have ever graced this quadrant of space.

Although Daniel wondered if it was less literal, the Furling may have just been the last addition to the Great Alliance, or they may have been the latest species to evolve, or even the ones who built the obelisk could have been the young who learnt from an elder master.

The term savage was something that confused Daniel, it was something he struggled to get any ideas for all of the possible meanings did you fit with what he had come to think of when he had learnt of the elusive people.

"Doctor Jackson?" Said a voice from behind Daniel.

Turning around he was surprised to find none other than the military twin, Frederick Hartman.

"Mr Hartman." Daniel said in wary greeting wondered why the man was here, the Institute mostly kept to themselves on Earth.

"Call me Freddie or Frederick please Doctor." The young man said smiling, "I thought that I would come and see the obelisk for myself, and I must say the images sent to our tower do not do it justice."

"You have an interest in the find?" Daniel asked with interest, he found it odd as the man was a soldier not unlike Shepard and O'Neill, but not many soldiers he had met had an interest in history.

The man failed to hide his amusement, "I left the British Armed Forces a number of years ago, I returned to my fondness of the Intrigue of archaeology. I admit that I have studied a lot of your work since you joined the Stargate Program."

Daniel fondly remembered where he had been all those years before, when he had been hired by Catherine Langford to help unlock the mystery of the Stargate, he had caught her attention due to his belief that the Great Pyramids of Giza had been used as landing pads for alien ships.

"So what was your thoughts on my last public papers?" Daniel asked considering if the man was speaking the truth.

"At Oxford I admit I read your theories and thought that the idea was absurd, not because I did not believe in aliens, but because I thought that the idea of using the pyramids of landing spaceships to be ridiculous." Frederick laughed abashed, "Since I joined the Institute and I learnt Earths true histories and place in this galaxy my eyes were opened further and I realised my error."

That was a surprise, Daniel thought to himself. Not many people, or at least those that were not conspiracy theorists, believed in intelligent life outside of Earth.

"You studied at Oxford?" Daniel asked respecting that qualification.

"Yes, although I chose to join the military rather than pursue a more academic career but I have since returned to it and find it much more rewarding." Frederick said walking forwards and he picked up the image that Daniel had been studying, "The savage young would set out on the path of enlightenment"

"You can read Furling?" Daniel asked shocked, he had thought he was the only one on Atlantis who could.

Frederick tilted his head as he continued to look at the newer images, "I have a gift when it comes to languages, the older the easier I find them. Your notes you sent to Atlantis were given to me by Councillor Shepherd, I took a look over them and came to the same translations as you."

"Not many on Earth know the Furling Language." Daniel commented, he had believed he was one of the only ones.

"The Furling language has been found in Europe as a cult language" Frederick countered "The Institutes knowledge of the language was improved due to your findings over the years."

Daniel often wondered how easily the Institute and the Lantean Society functioned together when back on Earth they were viewed with open suspicion. He had observed a number of their scientists working with the Atlantis science teams, and had even seen them going off world on joint missions, he wondered if Earth was aware of the level of cooperation out here in Pegasus.

"I took the liberty of running your transcriptions of the writing through the Atlantis Database" Frederick told him, and he put down the photos and looked up and he looked thoughtful and conflicted. "According to the database your translations are correct."

"Did you run a translation of the language into Ancient Lantean?" Daniel asked, it might be possible the language was different in their language.

"I did" Frederick said much to Daniels surprise "I translated this Furling writing into Ancient Lantean, and many of the older Alteran dialects, English, Latin and even the language of the Asgard and Nox."

"Did you find any differences?" Daniel asked hopefully, he wanted to find the missing answer.

"No, there ninety-three percent degree of accuracy on the translation." He said considering his words, "It is possible that this translation is correct, just strange."

"Well perhaps it is right" Daniel said dejectedly, "who knows what they were trying to say, no one is still around who could tell us."

"I thought that the Nox were still kicking about somewhere back home." Frederick said "I saw a report once that said that they only recently secluded themselves and barred entry to their gate."

Daniel wondered just what that secretive and peaceful race were doing these days, the last he had known they were burying their Stargate to protect themselves from outside influence. Although they had helped the Tollan before their planets destruction.

"Last we knew they were." Daniel said considering the possibilities, "We haven't checked in with them for many years, even when Ori were a threat we did not see them, they are very creative and could have escaped notice."

"Well while I am here Doctor I thought I might help you with the other higher up writing, perhaps we will find more information." Frederick offered "with the two of us able to read the language it will speed up the research."

Daniel regarded him and smiled "Of course I would be happy for the help."

And they got to work, the Institute helping Atlantis and Earth which was becoming more normal these days.

_**Galactic Void – Billions of Lightyears Away – Destiny**_

Flying through the mysterious aurora of blue light was the legendary ancient ship, she had travelled an unprecedented distance since her construction at Terra.

In her time traveling down the path laid before her towards her mission of answering the oldest question in the universe she had learnt a great deal but had also faced true hardships and she bore the scars as testament to her journey.

Her solitary journey had changed the day a group of humans, the children of her builders had arrived in her halls. They were not the optimum crew, they were young and inexperienced but she had come to rely on them and had tried to guide them with a light hand, in return they had even helped her, repairing her and managing her systems.

The crew had deactivated her advanced capabilities and had taken control of many of her systems themselves but with them all asleep in the stasis hall, she was released from quarantine and was able to access all of her systems.

Destiny was four months from the estimated journey time the odd scientist and his young protégé had calculated but she had detected a great deal of power bleeding from her power conduits, and she was running simulations on the power requirements of getting to her destination, keeping the crew alive, the power bleeding from her systems and the power necessary for safely recharging within a star.

According to her calculations their current course would result in their arrival but with the crew dead in stasis or barely alive with no power to recharge. So Destiny needed a new course and directive so she began to run through simulations and evaluating each for the optimum solution.

It took two days for her to run through every permutation and possibility, each of which required further simulation on each in case of further issues and she had been able to pick the best solution, she accessed the program the crew as written for the journey which plotted their course and arranged for their arrival and recharge within a star, she effortlessly bypassed the security protocols the scientists had written and made the necessary changes.

Destiny continued to travel at FTL her destination unchanged but only time would tell if they crew would live and make it there.


	33. Chapter 33

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Thirty-Three**

**Unrest**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Dakara – Free Jaffa Nation **

Dakara had a very long history and one that was very significant within the Milky Way.

When the Ancient Altera had travelled from the Celestis Galaxy they had arrived on Dakara before they explored the galaxy and eventually settled on Earth. When the plague had swept through the galaxy and decimated the Ancient Altera Colonies and had begun to infect all races and life within the galaxy the Ancients had built a device in the large mountain on Dakara and they reseeded life within the Milky Way.

After the Ancient Altera fled to the Pegasus Galaxy the planet came into the possession of the Goa'uld System Lords who sought the powerful Ancient technology but were never able to find it. They claimed the planet for their own and it was here that they genetically altered a group of humans from Earth and created the Jaffa and it was the site of the first Prim'ta implantation.

The planet was taken from the Goa'uld by the Jaffa rebels who fought a long and bloody campaign to take the planet fighting both the Goa'uld and Replicators who sought the device. Eventually the device was found and Samantha Carter of Earth, Selmak of the Tok'ra and his host Jacob Carter, and the System Lord Ba'al were able to use the device to wipe out the Replicators.

Due to the revolt of the rebel Jaffa and the conquest of Dakara proved to the majority of Jaffa who still served their false gods of their duplicity and directly led to the general revolt of all Jaffa against their masters and soon free Jaffa arrived on Dakara and began to establish a democratic government.

The Free Jaffa Nation emerged from the planet and they began to build their capital.

As a new democracy that was very divided the FJN struggled to keep itself governed as they was two sides, the traditionalists and the progressives.

But the FJN was crippled by the Ori invasion when Adria had the planet attacked to destroy the device the Jaffa has used to kill the crew and warriors of one Ori ship and an entire planet of humans. The attack devastated Dakara and many of its leadership were killed and many Jaffa converted to Origin.

When Earth destroyed the Ori and utilised the Ark of Truth to reveal the truth of the Ori the Jaffa nation began to rebuild and consolidate, Bra'tac had begun to lead them and Dakara was slowly being rebuilt.

As a military people it was unsurprising that one of their first accomplishments was to begin building a fleet of new vessels called Ash'tak, they were trying to remove all traces of the false gods from the civilisation but their people were slow to change.

Teal'c had hated the Jaffa High Council, he felt the traditionalist faction held the power and would cause the downfall of his people and his was outvoted more than he succeeded and so he had a Proxy serve in his stead and returned to Earth.

But after being gone from his people for so long and returning from the Black Eye Galaxy and set foot back on Dakara he was surprised by what he saw. The Jaffa was splintering and its central government failing, Jaffa was fighting amongst themselves, old rivalries were resurfacing made worse by the starvation across many of their worlds.

There was an outcry from the Jaffa on Dakara was Teal'c to retake his position on the council and help his people, and Teal'c had wanted to refuse as he did not think himself up to the task but his son Rya'c had taken him aside and told him that it was his obligation to help his people, he had started them on the path to freedom now he needed to help them achieve it.

From his time on Earth Teal'c had often heard, Idle hands make the Devils work, and he could see that for his people that was true, without the conscription of Jaffa into the System Lord Armies his people needed something occupy their time. So he along with the others on the council created a new work program.

Five year periods where a Jaffa was conscripted to serve the government's needs, males and females were put to work in construction, agriculture and manufacturing programs, these Jaffa would be provided food and shelter for their services and they would begin building their society, and the sweat of the Jaffa was building it and it was something all Jaffa could support.

The Lucian Alliance was also a nuisance for the FJN and they were approaching on their territory often and had claimed two of their worlds but Bra'tac had led their fleet to engage the Alliance and had taken them back but their people could not support an all-out war yet so they only reacted out of defence.

Earth often provided them with technologies and vehicles to help them industrialise in agriculture, they supplied them with tractors and mechanical ploughs to help them, Earth had withdrawn their support for a time but now they were helping them again, a small prod or word here on their, O'Neill and the World Council of Earth did not want to seem to be controlling the Jaffa.

The Jaffa High Council had received offers from other factions of the Lucian Alliance, wanting an alliance of sorts or trade but each time the council rebuffed them, citing that they wanted their independence from all but Jaffa. The Jaffa despised the Alliance as they had no honour and were thieves and smugglers, and the only reason they wanted an alliance was to weaken the Jaffa-Tauri relationship and it was one the Council did not wish to place in jeopardy.

Teal'c stormed out of the most recent council meeting in the rebuilt council building and many hastily moved out of his way and moved through the corridors of the building, his face portraying his silent rage.

Three of their new ships had been stolen by a group of traditionalist Jaffa from one of their ship building planets and the council had decided not to pursue them as they did not have the resources to track them, but it had been a very close vote and Teal'c believed the Traditionalist members of the council knew exactly where those ships were.

He had also submitted the proposal that all human subjugates should be given their freedoms on the planets that they controlled, many of whom were kept under their control just as they had under to Goa'uld and were their slaves.

In one of Teal'c visits to Earth where he requested some additional support for agriculture development Jack had pointed out that the Jaffa still had human slaves, people from Earth who had been stolen from Earth by the Goa'uld and that in the future Earth would reach out to protect them as Slavery of humans was outlawed on Earth and they were descendants from Earth.

It was a warning, Teal'c knew it, and one his people would need to deal with eventually so he tried to sow the seed of an idea but had been heavily opposed by most of the council, only Bra'tac and Rak'nor had supported him.

"Teal'c" said the stern voice from behind him.

Teal'c paused and waited for his old mentor to catch up, well not so old anymore he corrected himself, he was older than Bra'tac now due to his time aboard Odyssey in the time dilation field.

"You should be mindful of your emotions Teal'c, the Council saw your anger through all of the meeting." Bra'tac scolded, "In my time on the council I have lost votes more often than I have won. Our people are stubborn my friend, this should not surprise you. I often think you are the most stubborn of us all."

"Indeed." Teal'c said "But in time it may cause untold tension between us and the Tauri."

"That will be a dark day." Bra'tac conceded, "We have seen first had what they can do when pushed, I fear the day our people cause a war between us and O'Neill of Minnesota."

Teal'c remained silent, he was not sure what he would do if that ever happened.

"Come, we need to see to the need to see the new squadron of Needle Threaders." Bra'tac told him leading him outside and towards the gate, "I have been told they have finished their training."

"Rya'c has said that the training was very intense." Teal'c said, he was happy his son had decided to join their pilots, he was by all accounts very skilled.

"You son has turned into a fine warrior Teal'c, he is a credit to you and I am sure Drey'auc would be proud of him." Bra'tac told him, "Have you seen him much since your return?"

"No." Teal'c said "I have been busy and he has been off world, but I have heard Kar'yn in with child."

"He has not told you?" Bra'tac asked "You need to spend time with your family."

"Indeed." Teal'c agreed and they waited at the gate as it lit up and a wormhole exploded out from the ring.

A group of Jaffa stepped through the gate and Teal'c barely looked at them but it was only then that he noticed the last person to step through the gate was Ishta.

"Teal'c" she said surprised "I had not thought to see you here."

"Indeed." He replied his earlier anger dissipating "You no longer sit on the council and have left it to your proxy."

She drew herself upright and glared at him, "I was tired of the traditionalists, they ruled the council. Your yourself abandoned the council to return to the Tauri."

Knowing she had a point stung but he nodded "I have returned Ishta, you have been missed on Dakara." He told her "I will be back, we are visiting Venoros to see our new pilots."

"I have heard Rya'c is leading them well." She smiled and she gestured for her guards to leave her "I will come with you Tealc and Master Bra'tac, I would like to see them for myself and I have questions for you both."

Teal'c inclined his head contently and Bra'tac smiled knowingly and began to dial the gate.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Athos – Free Market Bazaar**

The Athosian people had finished building the great bazaar and it was very large and full of stalls and shops which would be rented out on Market days, they had now built a large paved pathway, which could have had four Earth cars side by side and be comfortable, it was bordered with trees and plants and led from the Security centre to the Bazaar.

The Athosians were working with the Lantean architects and had already drawn up plans for future expansions to the market, from a ship docking platform, parks and stadiums, to hotels, spas and restaurants and a bank all of which was to cater for the needs of those that could use the bank.

Teyla and Kanaan were still leading their people and both of them were happy to live on Lantea in Janus Port or in Atlantis itself but they knew some wished for a home on Athos like their ancestors had, and some of the daring had ventured into the ruined city of Emege.

The Bazaar was still a work in progress for the Athosians, the Coalition of Planets backed their market as had the Lanteans. However, Teyla had wanted to learn more about economy and trading so John had sent her and a number of her people to Earth where they could see what many of their cultures and other countries did.

General O'Neill had happily accommodated her travel across Earth with experts in economics to explain what she saw and had even arranged a visit to the Hebridan where the joint world of humans and Serrakin were still rebuilding after the Ori conquests of their world but they had a very commercial economy almost entirely controlled by the Tech Con Group.

Teyla worried that the market would encourage the extortion of people who were vulnerable or who did not understand technology or the value of certain goods. On the first market many races had come with only foods and trinkets, but on the second market some had come with raw materials such as gold and silver, but some had brought valuable elements such as naquadah and trinium and had traded them for food or gems.

The Athosians may not have been an advanced society when the people of Earth had first met them but in the past they had been, they still understood basic principles of science and under the tutorage of Earth they were leaning more, and she knew that even if an agriculture society currently had no need for naquadah and trinium and other such elements, in the future as their societies develop and eventually industrialise should the Wraith not cull them these materials will be valuable and highly sought after.

So Kanaan and Teyla were trying to find a way to limit the possible extortion but today was not a day for leading their people. Today they were concentrating on being a family and had taken Torren up into the mountains where there was an open meadow where Teyla and Kanaan had often gone when she was not off world on missions for Atlantis.

Torren was now just under four years old and was happily running through the meadow chasing the butterfly-like creatures and bee-like creatures that were there.

"Why did you want to come here?" Teyla asked "We have not been here for so long, not since Torren…"

Kanaan smiled at the memory of what happened here the last time, "Torren needs to know where his home is."

Teyla blinked "His home is Lantea, either on Atlantis or Janus Port." She was surprised that Kennan would say such a thing, "This is not a home this is where we were born and lived in fear of the Wraith."

"Athos is our homeworld Teyla." Kanaan refuted "he is an Athosian and needs to learn about this world just like we did."

"I do not disagree Kanaan." Teyla told him softly "One day he will lead our people just as I have, he is a child on Athos but he is also a Lantean citizen."

"I fear our way of life will be changed on Lantea, they have done so much for us already and we have children born of Athosian, Travellers and Lantean blood, children of two worlds and two cultures." Kanaan said sadly "But what we are building here, the Free Market it is important to our people and I know it is to you."

"It is, here we can achieve much and more than we ever did before the Lanteans arrived and woke the Wraith." Teyla said "They are my friends Kanaan."

"I know." He smiled at her, "many of our people count them friends but some still fear Atlantis and the wraith of the Ancestors."

Teyla frowned, it has been explained to her people many times that the Ancestors had ascended long ago and could not interfere with the lower plane but their belief in the Ancestors was strong.

She was saved from further conversation on the matter by the communicator on her wrist sounding, according to the people of Earth it was something akin to a iwatch but made on Atlantis as a communicator rather than radios.

She pressed the screen and it immediately connected to her ear piece, "This is Teyla."

"Teyla, someone has just come through the gate asking to see you." Said Natari, an Athosian stationed in the security centre "They say it is important."

She looked at Kanaan who was now playing with Torren "I will be there in a few minutes, keep them detained."

"What is it?" Kanaan asked concerned

"Someone has come through the gate unannounced." She told him, their quiet moment was ruined, "I need to go."

Kanaan nodded understanding "take the ship, I will walk back down with Torren."

"Are you sure?" she asked, the walk would take two hours."

"Of Course, we will stay up here a little longer." Kanaan said and they he raced after his son who was running after a creature.

Teyla hurried across the meadow to where a Puddle Jumper was sitting, walking aboard she saw the young Lantean Captain reading a book.

"Captain Douglas." She said startling him, "Can you take me to the security centre now."

"Of course." He said "Where is Kanaan and the little one?"

"They will remain here." She said and she sat on one of the chairs.

The journey took them only a mere few minutes and they landed on top of the security centre and she hurried down the stairs into the secured areas and found herself in front a sealed door guarded by a Lantean security officer.

"Who is it?"

"His name is Mylus." The security officer said "He is seemed very anxious."

"Thank you." She said and she opened the door and stepped in, the moment she did she took note of the man's clothing, he wore a metal armour and had a tattoo on his neck.

"You are Satedan." She stated, "I am Teyla Emmagan."

"I need your help!" he said standing up "I need to get a message to Ronon Dex."

"You know Ronon?" she asked "Why do you need him?"

"I have come from Sateda, we were rebuilding our city but now the Wraith have arrived." He said beseechingly "We need the help of the Lanteans."

"How did you get here?" she asked sternly glaring at him, she had met other Satedans and they had been secret Wraith Worshipers, "The Wraith do not allow they prey to escape and block the gates on worlds they Cull."

"The gate was already open; I was part of a scouting team looking for an empty world where we can build a new city for ourselves." The man said quickly, "my unit was already going through the gate when the darts came from the skies."

"You were lucky." Teyla said "Ronon is no here."

"I know, but it is well known that your people are allied to the Lanteans." Mylus said unflinchingly "No one knows where they are but you do."

Nodding Teyla stepped out of the room and immediately made her way through the building and arrived in the arrival hall where the gate was sat.

"Dial Atlantis!" she called to the control officer situated in a room above overlooking the hall which contained the DHD and the security system controls.

The officer heard her and followed her order and the gate constellations glowed briefly as the address was inputted into the DHD and then the wormhole formed and stabilised, she pressed her watch and established a link through the gate.

"Amelia?" she asked.

"No ma'am its Chuck." Said a male voice in her ear, "is something wrong Teyla?"

"Can you get Ronon and Councilor Sheppard here now?" she asked "There is a situation here that requires their attention."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Galilea – Coalition of Planets Assembly Hall **

Richard Woolsey was the Lantean Ambassador, his time was often spent off-world dealing with relations between Lantea and other nations and worlds.

Most recently he had been instrumental of easing the relations between Lantean and Earth but now he was back and the first order of business was a meeting with the Coalition, and it was a place Woolsey tried to avoid as he found their lack of protocol irritating.

Since they had first been made aware of the Coalition it had grown considerably with more worlds joining them and it had created better unity especially in light of the Trinity Queens aggressive culling practices, five known worlds had been culled in their entirety and the culling was continuing.

The Coalition had wanted to meeting with the Lanteans as they had received a report from one of their members that over one hundred people had been stolen from their planet, only it was done by metal men, not the Wraith and they wanted the Lanteans to track them down.

Of course it went without saying that they also wanted their technologies and advancements, but also to destroy the wraith, but Woolsey was always able to stop these conversations almost none of the members were industrialised yet, even by Victorian Earth standards.

"Mr Woolsey you have our orders." Shiana said "Now go back and do as we bid."

Richard glared at her for her audacity, "We are not beholden to this coalition. I will of course take your directives back to the Lantean Council but it will be at their discretion if we listen to you. So you are aware if you wish for our continued participation in this coalition you will expand the seats here today, we want a representative of every planet in the coalition at all meetings. I will also tell you to stop issuing commands of Lantea, if you continue we will leave."

"We will take your comments under advisement." Dimas said shooting a sour look at his fellow representative, "We shall send word to you when we convene the next session."

Picking up his briefcase he left the chamber and made his way through the stone halls until he reached a door which led to the surface of the planet.

He walked alone down a steep hill and walked to the DHD and pressed the symbols and activated the gate and stepped through.

On the other side of the gate was a puddle jumper sitting on the small island that resided in the middle of a huge lake full of large aquatic creatures with the gate cut off from the planet which was devoid of human life.

"Mr Woolsey." Matthew Hartman said meeting him as he stepped through the gate, "We were expecting you much later than this."

Richard looked at the man from the Institute and could see three of his scientists behind him with some form of computer probing the lake.

"The meeting went quicker than most; we need to get back to Atlantis there is much that they need to be aware of." Woolsey told him, "We should…"

He didn't finish his sentence as the gate activated and spat out the puddle.

"Move! Now! Into the Jumper!" Major Samuels shouted and he and his two men held their guns at the ready as Woolsey and the Institute scientists hurried into the back of the ship.

A large number of black clad soldiers came through the gate and they held guns in their hands and they opened fire immediately, the Major taken a shot to the chest which threw him backwards into the Jumper windscreen.

"Major!" Woolsey exclaimed but it was too late their last soldier was unable to kill all of their foes and he was killed.

Matthew pushed his way to the front of the jumper and with a mere casual gesture the jumper activated under his touch and activated, the drive pods extended and the rear hatch closed.

Their enemy were ready for them and they opened fire on the drive pods with a weapon akin to a shotgun but it created a small explosion on impact.

"Everyone sit down and buckle up!" Matthews yelled and he grabbed the controls and the jumper began to lift up from the ground but even more soldiers poured through the gate and fired on the jumper.

He did his best to get the ship away but the damage to the drive pods was enough to cause faults and the sparked feebly meaning they could only ascend or descend on the drives under the jumper and the weapons systems were damaged in the explosions.

"How long will the hull protect us?" Woolsey asked "will to stop them?"

"Not forever." Matthew said quietly and then he saw that they had a primitive RPG and it fired at the gap in the hull where the drive pods extended from and the jumper was thrown sideways and they crashed into the water "No you don't!" the young man said and he was able to move the ship into the water further and they began to sink."

"What are you doing!" Woolsey cried out as they descended into the lake and they could see the odd creatures around them.

"The only thing I could." Matthew shrugged, "Now get comfortable, we might be here for a while, it will take Atlantis time to notice we are gone."

Woolsey knew it was true, the meeting had only lasted half an hour when usually they could go on for a few hours at a time, and it would take Atlantis time to go a look for them.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – City of Atlantis **

John was in the middle of reviewing department reports and read through the evaluations of the people who worked on the city as the various department heads recommended their peoples bonuses and ratings.

He remembered when he and Rodney had protested about that job in their first year and now here he sat overseeing everyone member of the Atlantis expeditions end of year reviews. He needed to get out of the chair but there was no one from Earth he would trust with the seat, well none that were free.

The Lantean Response Fleet was over the planet having returned from a scout for the Vanir and trying to locate the Trinity Fleet of Wraith but had only succeeded to find Todd's Wraith Alliance, and even they were unable to find the Trinity Fleet, all they found was their victim's planets devastated and no sign of them.

General Carter, Daniel Jackson and Vala had left Atlantis to return to Earth, the former as her ship was finally being released and she needed to consult the Asgard core for data for her pet project but had asked that the wrecked Aurora be left alone. Daniel needed to go back to the SGC and his library as he wanted to research the Furling and hoped to get permission to go to the Nox Homeworld and Vala had followed him.

"John." Said Scottish voice at his door.

"Carson come in." John said welcoming a distraction "I didn't know you were back, how was Velarnia? They had a Yellow fever I think I read in a report."

"Yes they did, they are struggling to survive as Michael infected them with his improved Hoffan drug and it took almost all of their able men." Carson said "And now they have been hit by this epidemic and they are malnourished and sickly, but they are on the mend now."

"Good to hear." John said "you are going to be revered if you keep going Carson."

"I am doing only what my conscience tells me." Carson shrugged, "But I am not here to talk about my work, I had been told of a world where the people had disappeared for a month only to be returned but seemed to be ill."

"Oh?" John said "Did you look into it?"

"Yes and I found this." Carson said and he handed over his tablet which displayed documented and photographs of his patients, "Each off them shows signs of having a large series of tests performed on them, from blood, bone barrow, Cerebrospinal fluid and other evidence of procedures carried out on them."

"Odd, these are highly advanced medical procedures."

"Aye." Carson said "The females also had their eggs harvested, I found evidence of the removal."

John looked up and raise his brows "For what purpose?"

"I don't know, none of them have any memories of who done it, just bright white lights blinding them and the pain of the procedures and recovery." Carson said "I cannot prove it but I think this might be the work of the Vanir."

"Why?" John asked "We have never found their victims before."

"No, but these procedures could be used to help the research that they are carrying out." Carson said "I do not think this is the work of the Wraith, even Michael and Todd would not have need for this research."

John conceded that Carson was probably right, and this might mean they had a lead on the elusive Vanir, "How often have these people been taken?" he asked.

"According to the locals this has been happening to them for generations on and off," Carson stated "they have stories of people walking into the woods and disappearing in the woods or fields and being missing for weeks or a month only to return with no explanation."

That was a very good lead, if the Vanir frequented this planet for their people then it was very possible for them to monitor it for a chance at apprehending the Vanir or tracking them to their Homeworld.

"On our next dial in with Earth I will see about requisitioning one of their new surveillance satellites they are deploying across the Milky Way to watch for the Lucian Alliance." John promised "I have been wanting to get one of the prototypes for a while anyway as we could have use for them."

"Thanks I better go; the Institute here has requested that I drop by their tower." Carson said resigned "I have no idea what they will have need of me for."

John smirked "They are not so bad, On Earth then may be a pain in the proverbial arse but here they are being helpful. You might be surprised by them. Even Doctor Jackson was surprised that their lead officer here is a budding archaeologist."

"Fine!" Carson said throwing his hands up "But if they think of trying to hijack some of my research I will show them just home Scottish I can be!"

John shook his head as his friend left the office, and he wondered if there had been a change in him since he had been cloned. He had always though that a clone would be a perfect copy of the original like the Asgard, but he was almost certain there had been slight personality changes in Carson, although he thought it was for the better.

Sighing that his distraction was over he went back to the reports in front of him irked that he was stuck behind the desk and not out in a ship fighting the wraith, but his irritation lasted all but two minutes when Chuck walked into his office.

"Colonel?" he said urgently

"What is it Chuck?" John asked looking up from Rodney's evaluation of Zelenka.

"Teyla has just dialled in from Athos sir." He reported "She has a Satedan in custody who is looking for us and Ronon."

John brows rose with interest, Ronon was on Atlantis currently having only got back that morning from an off world mission destroyed an old wraith breeding facility.

"Tell her to transport this Satedan here, but to follow the detention protocol." John directed "I will go and find Ronon."

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth**

The Trials of the IOA members had begun and they were being judged by a panel of seven judges from different nations, there was a sticking point in the process as they did not know under whose law to prosecute them under.

So as a compromise they created the panel of judges that could use their own countries law to judge them and they the panel would pick the overall judgement.

Jack was happy the trials were starting, so far sixteen former IOA members had been judged and they had all received life imprisonment for Treason, it was a new charge for normally it would be someone betrayed a country but they betrayed the world.

The law was still obeyed they were entitled to legal representation, even though the Gate Program and the IOA were top secret they had to keep everything above board as much as possible.

But as they started to place them on trial they started levying for deals and as they did they revealed that the conspiracy ran deeper than they had ever thought, they had assets in major tech companies and industries which were unaware of who they were working for but had to be cut loose and interrogated.

They did however find out there was more Alliance members on Earth who had integrated themselves into their society deeper than any had previously, so the world intelligence agencies were tasked to identify them.

Of course everything could not run smoothly for Earth and the World Council, they were an underground movement called "Veritas" named for roman goddess of truth, they were a fringe group of hackers and activists who were anonymously publishing information online all of which was related in some way to the Stargate Program.

Jack was aboard the Valliant which was becoming like a second home for him, the World Council wanted these activists found as they were making the connections between various events over the years and they were highlight government secrecy and it was feared they would find hard evidence rather than just have a theory without proof.

The IOA and Veritas were big issues but ones Jack was only keeping an eye on, he left those investigations to those who tasked to it, his ongoing issue was the Lucian Alliance.

Over the last month they had struck at the Alliance hard and destroyed a lot of their infrastructure on protected planets, and destroyed significant numbers of their fleet and so far there had been no reprisals but the Alliance had realised that Earth was beginning to uphold the old treaty and had hastily retreated from some.

The Earth fleet has suffered no casualties but they had lost fourteen F302's and their pilots, but the Majestic would require repairs for a month after the significant damage done to portions of its hull, along with Apollo who was scheduled for a retrofit of updated components anyway.

Fleet expansion was of great interest to the World Council and to build the fleet they needed more shipyards, on Earth there were currently only two construction sites: Area 37 in Nevada could construct a single BC303B, BC304 and BC305 at a time but was being expanded with an additional two berths. BAE Shipyard in the United Kingdom had three berths, two of which could only construct a BC303B but the third could construct any current ship.

The remaining shipyard was the Torchwood Institutes Olympiad Shipyard and it had four berths used for construction of any class of ship and they were under constant use since the Institute had offered their use and they were already building a further three berths on their own funds to help the fleet expansion.

The US shipyard was building its first BC305 which was being designated "_Emerson" _named for Paul Emerson who had been killed commanding the _Odyssey_ by the Lucian Alliance. The British were building a BC304 named _La Fayette _for the French, and two BC303B, the _Khukri_ for India and another currently unnamed ship for the joint venture between the Australian and New Zealand.

On Olympiad the Russians had financed for the construction of BC305 _Grigorovich_, the _Yamashiro_ of Japan and _Scharnhorst _of Germany both of which were Daedalus-Class ships and the first of two Canadian 303B's.

"General O'Neill!" said a young officer rounding a corner of the Valliant, "Sir we have detected something on our surveillance network."

"What is it?" Jack asked, the network was still being deployed and there were gaps in it so he was surprised to get a result so quickly.

"It will be easier to show you sir; it does make much sense." The young officer said and he gestured for Jack to follow and he did.

As they walked Jack smirked to himself, he now thought as everyone working under him to be young officers, he was getting old, and perhaps it was time to rethink his retirement plan.

When he arrived in the operations room he was shown to a screen where the surveillance network data was shown and what he saw was odd and worrying.

"Get word to Generals Carter and Mitchell." Jack ordered to a major passing by "I want them and their ships here within the hour, it seems we may have a situation."

"Yes General." The Major said and she dashed off to follow his order.

"I also want a full sweep done of the Sol System and run diagnostics on our long and short range sensors look for any anomalies, if you find even a small data anomaly the size of a pinprick I want to know about it!" he said to everyone "We may have a security breach."

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PLEASE REVIEW I WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK AND WHERE YOU THINK THIS IS GOING! DO YOU HAVE IDEAS ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD INCLUDE?

As always I write this fic just for fun!

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	34. Chapter 34

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**Stargate: The Ascension of the Fifth Race**

By Jayan-Phoenix

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**Chapter Thirty-Four**

**Sateda**

**Pegasus Galaxy – Hyperspace – Allied Terran Ship Daedalus **

When Mylus had been brought to Atlantis he had a hood over his head and had been shown to the conference room.

John, Larrin and Ronon had met Teyla there and the moment the two Satedans saw each other they embraced each other enthusiastically. Mylus explained what had happened, Ronon had immediately asked that John send the Pegasus Defence Fleet to help them.

Not needing convincing John had agreed, they had the Atlantis long range sensors hone in on the Satedan system and from what they could make out a large amount of the Trinity Fleet besieging the system and the four worlds that were inhabited there.

So John had the Tria, Daedalus and nine of the Generation Ships sent out to help, and left the planning to Colonel Caldwell as a test of his command of the Fleet.

Colonel Caldwell sat aboard the Daedalus which was the flagship of the Pegasus Defence Fleet even if it wasn't the most powerful if compared to a fully powered Aurora-Class. They dropped out just outside of the system to probe it before they acted and Caldwell was glad he had as what he saw was shocking.

The entire Trinity Fleet was in the Satedan system, they were spread across the system as there were four inhabited worlds but they needed a plan if they were to save the Satedans, the others were secondary targets as they had not planned on them being there in such numbers.

"How many?" Caldwell asked his Weapons officer on his right.

"I am counting twenty seven hives, thirty three cruisers and hundreds of darts." She said her eyes wide as she read the sensor readings, "Sir I don't think we can help any of them."

Caldwell sat for a few minutes trying to think of a way that their fleet, as large as it currently was could fight of the entire Trinity Armada, they needed to divide them and distract them.

With a plan coming into his mind he opened a channel to the fleet and gave them his orders "I want you all to jump to hyperspace and drop out at different points within the system, circle the system and then proceed towards the centre, the wraith will take notice and pursue you, once they begin to chase you I will jump in over Sateda and rescue them" he told them quickly, "If it becomes too dangerous or you think your ship is at risk you are to jump away immediately."

The Fleet followed his orders and he tracked them through hyperspace and once they were in place and their plan began to work the Tria send a small subspace burst which Daedalus detected and then they jumped to hyperspace.

When they arrived just a short distance away from Sateda the sight of the assembled fleet was shocking, and many of the crew drew in a breath, the fleet was engaging them and had drew them away but a sizeable portion remained, and Caldwell guessed that the Queens were somewhere on one of them.

"We have a zpm from the Atlantis stockpile, it is barely a quarter fall but for this we will need to plug it in." Caldwell ordered and it was relayed to the engine room, "Take evasive action and get us as close to that planet as we can, shields to full and destroy whatever ships we can."

"Sir we cannot survive that fleet!" shouted one of the crew from behind them.

"Yes we can now take us in!" he said sternly and his navigation officer did as ordered and they accelerated forwards and their shield blossomed under the impact of wraith weapons, but they too struck with the Plasma beam weapons indiscriminately firing on any ship that got in their way, the rail guns fired mercifully taking out the Darts that came at them, the missile silos atop the bow opened and released six payloads of missiles which were the anti-dart tactical variety and they managed to punch a hole through the armada.

"Take us into the atmosphere." Caldwell ordered, "Transfer power from the Asgard weapons into the shields to reinforce them, we won't need them there."

_Daedalus_ pointed into bow downwards and began a fast descent into the planet's atmosphere, they skimmed through it to reduce the friction but at the speed they were going it didn't matter the shield was being strained by the friction and the enemy fire.

"Sir I am detecting the Satedans spread across the valley near the Stargate." The sensor officer reported, "I am reading five hundred life signs."

Caldwell frowned, he had not been told that they would be here in such large numbers, and they could not take that many people aboard the ship due to life support requirements.

"Lock on and beam up as many as we can but place them into the storage buffer, be careful not to beam up any wraith that could be down there too. We can rematerialize them later." Caldwell replayed and he silently preyed the ship would make it through this as it shook from the bombardment.

"Sir, five Generation ships have had to Jump to safety." Said the communications officer "They apologise but they were being overwhelmed."

"Its fine." He said he turned to the woman who was beaming the Satedans aboard "Have we got them all?"

"I think so, I have all of those that I can detect on the surface but there are bunkers and caves under the ruined city," she said frowning pressing buttons frantically, "there are life signs in them but I don't know if they are wraith or satedan or even human, the sensors are being distorted due to something in the composition of the ground and buildings."

"Very well we have done as much as we can." Caldwell nodded, "Ronon will be happy we have saved this many, take us back out into space and jump us immediately away from this system."

"Sir, the zpm has almost entirely depleted" the navigator warned as they accelerated up through the atmosphere and the enemy fire was increasing four fold as the wraith who had chased the Generation ships that had now left had returned, "We need to get clear of the atmosphere but this bombardment is slowing us down."

It took seven minutes to get themselves free of the atmosphere and accelerated and manoeuvre themselves into a path that could allow them to jump to hyperspace. The zpm had been drained in only three minutes and their shields were overtaxed and they took damage but had been able to jump to hyperspace.

They luckily had not lost a single ship but seven of the ships, including the Daedalus were damaged and would need repairs, but they had destroyed a small number of the Wraiths ships and now they had the Satedans in their buffer and they would now be safe.

The only question left to be answered was where would they go.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis**

Torchwood Tower was something of an oddity within the ancient city of the Ancients, like the rest of the city it was clearly of Ancient Lantean architecture and contained numerous Ancient Lantean Control consoles and interfaces.

However, when the Institute had set up shop in the tower they had installed an abundant of technologies they had developed since this their founding, from power production, computers, work stations and all manner of things to help them with their work.

Atop the tower had been a large balcony but the Institute had made this a landing platform for their Quinn-carrier ship that had been developed by Prometheus II on its last supply run.

In command of the Torchwood operatives was Frederick Hartman, and he had made sure that Atlantis and the High Council was at ease with their presence on the city and integrated themselves with them for the better protection of their people.

So when Sheppard asked if they wanted to join the off world teams to carry out their research Frederick had agreed, and so his people began to go off world and accompany teams attaching themselves as scientists and even military support.

Frederick was kept busy on the city by organising the operations of his people but mainly they ran themselves, instead he devoted his time to the Ancient Database and his intellectual pursuits. When he had first arrived on the city as Gordon Matthews he had made himself useful by going through the database and doing research, it was something that he was good at and it distanced him from the horrors of his military past.

He was in the process of going through the vast amounts of star map data within the database looking for anything that could give them some insight into the Ancient Lanteans old domain when a console beeped.

Rolling his chair over to the console he pressed a few buttons and saw it was a communication channel opened from Stargate Operations.

"Amelia?" he said opening the visual link, "Is something wrong?"

"Frederick we have lost contact with the team that we sent to escort Mr Woolsey." She said "Councillor Sheppard has sent a team to investigate but we cannot get a lock on the planet they were stationed on."

"How long?" Frederick asked, his research completely forgotten and she had her undivided attention "Have you checked to see if Woolsey is still with that Coalition?"

"According to the Coalition he left four house ago." Came a hard voice from off screen and then Sheppard stepped into the frame, "I know you will be worried, I have sent word to the roaming Travellers and asked if they would check the planet but have yet to hear back."

"What about our own assets?" Frederick asked "What of our own ships?"

"Our Fleet is out fighting the Wraith in the Satedan system, they will not be available for a number of hours." Shepard said solemnly, "our Cargo ships are all currently on Messaline and our mining outpost, but as you know they are not close to us or the planet."

Frederick minimised them on the screen and brought up the Pegasus star map and highlighted the planet his brother and the team had been on, Lantea, the Pegasus Fleet and other ships were and he realised that none were in a position to get to them.

"I will go." He said frowning, "Our Quinn-carrier is hyperspace capable, and capable of speeds almost matching the Prometheus, their only disadvantage is their range."

Sheppard frowned himself having not considered that, "They are armed?"

"Two rail guns and a miniaturised pulse cannon." He shrugged, "They were not built for combat, they could hold off a few darts, it was built as a means of fast travel between short distances."

"I am not comfortable with sending you out on a potentially dangerous mission Hartman." Sheppard said tersely, "If you encounter anything like a hive or cruiser this could end with your ship destruction."

"Understood Councillor but my brother is out there and I have to help him." Frederick said standing up, "I will be away in ten minutes."

"I will have Lieutenant Colonel Lorne and Teyla accompany you." Sheppard said quickly "They are gearing up and will be in your tower in ten minutes."

"Very well Councillor." Frederick said and he ended the conversation and moved away from the console at a run and down the set of stairs to the armoury, he had four of the Institute operatives gear up in their black armour, unlike those on Earth who used the white variant.

He was placing his plasma pistols into their holsters on his legs when the door chimed and he opened it with a wave of his hand and found Lt. Colonel Lorne, Teyla and to his surprise Doctor Becket outside and ready to leave.

"Doctor Beckett" Frederick said "Sheppard didn't say he was sending you."

"He told me what was happening and I thought a doctor might be needed." Beckett said uneasily, "I hope you do not mind."

"Not at all." Frederick said smirking, he knew the Doctor was wary of him and the Institute, they were currently researching medical technologies and had wanted his input but the doctor did not seem at ease with their method of advanced research.

"Freddie the ship is ready." Rani from one of the Indian stations said.

"Thank you." He said and turned to the assembled "Come we need to leave."

Making use of the transport booth they arrived outside where it was starting to rain and the black Quinn-Carrier lay waiting, its rear access ramp lowered and a team of Institute officers were rushing around making it ready.

"Do you know how to pilot this?" Lt. Colonel Lorne asked "I thought you were in the Army not the Air Force."

Frederick smiled, he would keep them guessing on his past, it was very broad after all even if he was young, "I can fly this, something me and my brother have in common is that we are both very skilled pilots." He didn't care for being modest, it was the truth they could fly just about anything.

He took the pilots chair and strapped himself in while everyone else did the same, he activated the vessel start up sequence and the wings folded down and the sections of the fuselage retracted exposing two circular thrusters built into the wings and they came to life and began to expel thrust.

"Is everyone strapped in?" He asked as he ran through more checks and found everything was satisfactory.

"Yes." Teyla said over the on-board radio.

Nodding Frederick opened a channel to Stargate Operations "This is Black-Hawk One to Stargate Operations."

"This is Shepard Black-Hawk One." Said the high Councillor, "You are clear to proceed, I wish you luck, send word as soon as you can."

"Copied." Frederick said and he pushed forward one of the controls and the power channelling into the thrusters increased and it began to lift off the tower quickly, once he had achieved a decent velocity and was clear of the city he activated the rear thrusters and they accelerated up towards the atmosphere.

Once clear of the atmosphere the Ion propulsion drives took over from the thrusters and then accelerated at a greater speed while Frederick input the planet coordinates into the Navcom and then he activated the hyperdrive and they were soon hurtling through subspace towards his brother.

**Pegasus Galaxy – M7D-669 – Downed Puddle Jumper**

Matthew Hartman was in the rear of the jumper with the control crystal trays open trying to determine what systems were broken, as the Jumper was stranded in the bottom of the lake and the marine life outside was very large and aggressive.

"Anything?" Woolsey asked nervously.

"No." Matthew said reading his handheld computer "The damage to the drive pods is extensive and I cannot reroute power away through secondary systems as I thought I could, the pods are just damaged, I can get us above water on just the pod built into the underside of the Jumper but I will not be able to control our flight or move."

"Matt can you dial the gate?" asked Katie, one of the Institute scientists, "We need to call for help."

"Tried it six times." Matthew snapped "You watched me six times try to use the on-board DHD, either it is broken, the signal isn't reaching the gate or the gate is in use."

Through the cockpit window they saw an explosion that illuminated the lake and they saw two of the large creatures that had been circling the jumper since they fell in the water.

"What the hell is that?" Woolsey spluttered.

"At a guess I would say it is whoever attacked us through the gate, they are throwing explosives into the lake to try and find us." Matthew said and he quickly began to be prod around in the crystal trays looking for a particular crystal. "Now everyone sit down while I do my work."

The explosions were more frequent and spread out over the lake, two of them were close enough to the Jumper to make it rock slightly but so far they had been lucky and had no direct impacts.

Matthew was working quickly having isolated the control systems that he needed and was working the rear small console in the back of the cockpit "Okay that should do it." He said to himself and he flicked a switch and a shield shimmered into existence around the jumper. "We have a shield." He called.

"I didn't think Jumpers utilised shielding technology." Woolsey said looking through the glass "How much time until it fails?"

"The shield is not as powerful as those used in the fleet, but it will hold off maybe three of these bombs that are being dropped." Matthew explained to them, "But to hold off the bombs means it's now pushing back the water which is also depleting the shield power."

"How long?" Katie demanded.

"We have maybe three hours." Matthew admitted, secretly he was just as nervous as everyone else on the Jumper but he hoped that Atlantis would send them help soon.

**Pegasus Galaxy – M7D-669 – Quinn-Carrier **

It took the Quinn-Carrier just under three hours to get to the planet and when they dropped out they saw that the system was empty, with no enemies displayed on the sensors. So Frederick set a course for the planet and locked on to the Stargate and he piloted the ship down through the atmosphere.

"We are here." He said to everyone, and he began to try and locate the Jumper or the team his brother led, "I am detecting around twenty people in the vicinity of the gate."

"Twenty?" Teyla said walking up behind him to looking through the cockpit glass, "Mr Woolsey's escort and your science team was only nine people."

"I am also not receiving their radio signals." Frederick said tersely, he would find his brother out here if it was the last thing he did, "I am going to take us in closer."

The Quinn-Carrier shot through the skies of the planet baring down on the Stargate position and as they got closer they saw that the gate was blocked by something in the middle of the event horizon and the twenty life signs they had detected were taking cover and firing rpg's at them.

"Okay we have hostiles." Frederick told them and he performed evasive manoeuvres "Whoever these people are…"

"This is Matthew Hartman of Atlantis." Said a voice over the radio "unknown ship can you hear me?"

"Matt?" Frederick all but shouted into his headset "Where are you?"

"We are in the lake, unknown assailants hit us and took out our drive pods." His brother told him "Are you able to help?"

Frederick was able to locate the jumper in the water, but a small explosion hit the outer hull of his vessel, "I don't care who these people are they are going to die."

At the front of the ship two small sections of the fuselage opened and the two railguns emerged from the forward section and a burst of weapons fire shot out and peppered the island and area around the gate but he didn't target the people.

"Do you recognise these people?" Frederick asked as he moved the ships position, its thrusters able to keep it hovering in one place but still able to move left and right allowing him to avoid the rpg fire.

"It could be the Genii." Lorne said taking the co-pilots seat without invitation "But as far as we knew they do not have these types of weapons."

"Matt can you get your jumper to the surface?" Frederick asked "I am engaging the targets and they are starting to fall back."

"Freddie?" Matt asked quietly "You don't have to do it."

Frederick flinched at his brother's words and his grip on the controls tightened, he held a finger over the trigger for the weapons as the targeting computer locked on to hostiles. The smell of fire and sound of screaming assaulted him suddenly and it had nothing to do with their current situation.

Lt. Colonel Lorne must have realised he was hesitating and he took a hold of the controls and pulled the trigger himself.

"But…" Frederick was about to say but he clamped his jaw shut, and steeled himself and took over the weapons fire and it took no time at all to kill the enemies and once it was clear the Jumper rose out of the lake.

It took tremendous effort to get the Jumper over the island, the Quinn-Carrier had to be lashed to it and drag it over but soon enough they were both on the ground. Frederick was immediately tackled by his brother who whispered into his ear that it wasn't his fault.

But Frederick was not so sure, he despised taking human life and it was the reason he had left the military, his brother understood his fear, he didn't care if he killed aliens such as Wraith but humans were a race he could not stomach to kill.

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PLEASE REVIEW MY DEAR READERS!

So I will be honest I hated the writing this chapter other than the Satedan rescue, but I have the next 7 chapters almost completely written just need to get them flowing better and they will be posted.

The next chapter will be Titled "Speed Way" and it will take place on the outer rim of Pegasus, some of you might be able to guess what that means.

As always I write this fic just for fun!

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	35. Chapter 35

Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Thirty Five**

**High Speed Race**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – Stargate Command**

The SGC had been repaired since the explosion had ripped through the Gateroom, the room itself had been updated with new armour cladding which matched the design aesthetic of Atlantis and the old concrete walls were hidden. The blast doors were replaced with new doors built of trinium, titanium and naquadah composite, but around each doorway was a shield emitter.

The gate itself was placed in a new ramp which was no longer made of steel mesh but a solid structure into which was the cradle that held the gate and from which the power conduits connected to the gate.

The Stargate Operations Observatory Room was also finally overhauled having been heavily damaged in the explosion. The old computer systems and towers that had been placed within it were now all gone replaced with consoles seen aboard the Valliant complete with the large glass screens, old circuitry and computer components replaced them with crystal technology.

For the first time since its creation the dialling computer was rebuilt into a new console and was much smaller than the original super computer housing of the original, but it still required the rotating of the inner ring to dial out. Homeworld Command preferred for security reasons and they had installed a shield to the gate.

As the old Iris from the gate had been damaged in the explosion and a new one had been forged of the same composite as the blast doors but was used as a backup in case the shield failed or a power outage, it could be manually activated to protect the facility.

Homeworld Command had finance the new upgrades, along with the installation of a new power generation room that utilised a naquadah power core and Subspace capacitor with an auxiliary port to install a zpm should the need arise.

SGC could dial Atlantis directly with the naquadah power core combined with the subspace capacitor but it ate a lot of power to do so, but they at least didn't have to rely on the rare power sources which could be better utilised elsewhere.

An alarm sounded in the base and over the internal speakers a voice was heard.

"Off World Activation."

Newly returned General Landry stood from his desk and made his way through the briefing room and down the stairs to the Observatory Room where Walter was working at the gate controls.

"Who is it Chief?" he asked.

"It is the Nox sir." He replied "They are coming through now."

True to his word the event horizon ripped and outstepped Lya of the Nox.

The security teams were standing as sentries around the room but none had raised a weapon against the woman who was gracefully walking towards them, dressed in her silver dress and foliage like hair.

The blast doors opened and General O'Neill and Daniel Jackson stepped out.

"Lya" Daniel said bowing slightly "It is good to see you again."

"And you as well Daniel Jackson." She replied softly "I have come as you request General O'Neill."

"Thank you Lya." Jack said smoothly "I have a request to make of you if you would be willing?"

"You seek the council of the Nox?" she asked

"In a way." Daniel said escorting her out through the blast doors.

General Landry made his way up stairs to the briefing room which was now set with iced water and organic fruits and snacks, from what he had read the Nox respected nature a great deal.

"You know of our old Alliance." Lya was saying as they walked in "You have come far very quickly."

"We discovered you old meeting place, Heliopolis." Daniel explained "We know that you, the Ancient Alterans, Asgard and Furlings allied yourselves in the pursuit of scientific understanding and mutual benefit."

"That was a long time ago, The Nox are the only remaining members." Lya said sadly "The others have all department from this galaxy and plane of existence."

"So do you actually not interact with the Ancients at all?" Jack asked with interest, "I know they are ascended but your people are spiritual I thought you might commune with them."

"Once long before the plague the Ancients taught my people the secrets of Ascension and we even spoke to some of the oldest of their kind" Lya said "But they imposed rules and soon it was no longer possible. My own people had ascended and returned many times in our history."

"Interesting." Daniel said and he was actually writing everything she said down, "What of the Furling? Where did they fit into the Alliance?"

"The Furling were not from this galaxy, they were known to the Ancients and the Asgard and came from a faraway galaxy and were the youngest of our group in terms of knowledge and history." Lya explained "They were a warrior people, much like yourselves but they caused a huge catastrophe which drew the attention of the Ancients and Asgard and they began to tutor them and show them how to advance their society."

"What happened to them?" Daniel asked, he pulled out a photograph of the spire from Pegasus "We have found this obelisk in the Pegasus galaxy and another billions of light years away, it was found by a team of our people aboard the Ancient ship _Destiny_."

"You discovered Destiny?" Lya asked shocked "We cautioned the Ancients on their pursuit of the answer to the question, as we did to the Furling but they did not head our warnings and set forth."

"Where are the Furling now?" Daniel asked "Are they in their home galaxy, or pursing the Destiny?"

"Neither." Lya said "Some may still be seeking enlightenment, but most have left this plane. Was this what you wished to ask me?"

"No." Jack said shooting Daniel a look."

"We would like to form an alliance, like that which you created all those years ago."

"The Nox welcome all as friends." Lya said smiling.

"No, we want to create an Alliance of the younger Races." Jack said, "My buddy Thor of the Asgard named us the Fifth Race."

"Fifth?" Lya repeated and shook her head, "You are too young, Potential your race has, but you have not reached a level of development that would mean you could be the Fifth, the Asgard named you too soon."

"Be that as it may." Jack said "We would like to emulate you, we are considering forming an Alliance with you, the Tok'ra, FJN and the Hebridan."

"Why would you ask us?" Lya asked "we have removed ourselves from this galaxy."

"You are one of the four elder races." Jack admitted "Having you there will help promote peace and friendship."

"The Nox will support any meeting of peace and friendship." Lya said "But we will not help you in your wars or any hostile action."

"We can work with that!" Jack said happily.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Janus Port **

The rescue mission of the Satedans had been successful and by the time the Pegasus Defence Fleet had returned, the second rescue team led by Officer Frederick Hartman had already returned, and _Daedalus_ had been sent back to the planet to reclaim the damaged Jumper.

John had flown Teyla, Ronon, Beckett and Larrin to the settlement just as the last of the Satedans were beamed down from _Daedalus_' storage buffer and they were very confused and frightened, they could see Janus Port in the distance but on the other side of a large river and trees bordered the open stretch of ground they were standing on.

Quickly John has the jumper on the ground and they exited the Jumper and they faced a large number of triple barrelled Satedan riffles, Ronon and Larrin both brought up their magnum pistols at the movements of the Satedans

"You are a Satedan" said an older man walking forward away from the huddles men and women.

"I am." Ronon said but he looked pleased to see his people. "I'm Ronon Dex, this is Teyla Emmagan of Athos, Larrin of the Travellers, John Sheppard and Carson Beckett of the Atlantis."

"I am Ushan Cai. So you are the Lanteans?" The man said blinking in surprise and he looked at each of them in turn "We have heard stories of you all."

"I hope the stories you have heard spoke well of us." Teyla said giving a friendly smile.

"We have heard of you and you mission against the Wraith, it is said you have killed many of their flying ships in battle" Cai said "However rumours have been spoken that the Wraith had destroyed the Ancestral city or that you had fled."

"If you look out that way you will see the remains of a second Ancestral city laying in the ocean, Atlantis is further out in the ocean but is still here." Ronon said pointing, he then looked at John to see if he should keep speaking but John gave him an encouraging look. "When did you return to Sateda?"

"A year ago." Cai said "We are hoping to rebuild our home."

"Mylus said you were looking for another world to build on." Teyla said "He came to Athos seeking us."

Cai shook his head, "The devastation on Sateda is vast, we needed to look into all options. Although the wraith may have now destroyed everything that remained."

John however didn't think so, "No, the Trinity Queens are just travelling system to system culling any planet they can find. You were just unlucky that they passed into your system."

"What do you mean to do with us?" Cai asked "are we you prisoners?"

"No!" John said quickly, "We only acted as we did and pulled you from your world because of the extreme size of the Fleet above your planet. In the next few days the ship that brought you here will return and we can send you back to Sateda.

"While you are all here I would like to give you all a once over." Carson said "I am a doctor on Atlantis, I want to make sure you are all well before we return you."

"Ronon Dex." Cai said looking at him, "I heard tales of your actions from people who have travelled to other worlds seeking trade, they say you were made into a runner."

"I was." Ronon admitted and his people looked at him warily "But the Lanteans found me and helped me, I have been with them ever since."

"So the rumours we have heard of the Lanteans and their flying ships are true?" Cai said breathlessly "Is there any way that we can trade?"

"A trade agreement between our peoples could be made." John agreed, "However at this moment I would rather see that you were settled, fed and looked after."

Above them four Lantean Transport ships flew over them, they contained the old Athosians tents they had once used to build their settlement on the mainland, crews of people from the Lantean society came to help the Satedans

Cai had his people help them get their temporary shelter set up and he took John up on his offer to show him he settlement, he left Teyla and Larrin to organise the care of the Satedan people while he and Ronon flew back over to Janus Port.

"So this is your city?" Cai asked as they walked up from the Jumper docking pad. "I always thought that Ancestral city would be much larger."

"This is not the city." Ronon laughed "This is just the mainland settlement, built to house Athosians, Travellers and some Earth people who do not live on Atlantis."

"The Lantean Society is made up of three separate peoples, the Travellers have their ships which they used to use to roam the galaxy to escape the Wraith, now they help us with logistics and fighting the Wraith." John explained "the Athosians are traders and farmers, they provide Atlantis with food and in exchange we give them protection, they also have Athos where they hold their Free Market."

"And your own people? Where is this Earth you speak of?" Cai asked, "I have never heard of it."

"We are not from this Galaxy." John told him as they passed the schools they had built "We are from the Milky Way which was where the Ancestors came from before they settled here, and it was also where they returned when they left all those years ago."

Cai was shown around the settlement where the three peoples lived happily, they showed him the various stalls and shops which sold all manner of things these days and even the tavern which was serving Kanaans beer and even showed him around one of the newly built houses yet to be assigned to someone.

Eventually they moved back through the settlement and boarded the Jumper and they flew out over the ocean passing Borealis and finally getting within sight of Atlantis. When Cai saw the ancestral city he gasped in awe and basked in its beauty.

John and Ronon exchanged a look of amusement, living in the city it was easy to forget what a sight it was to those who were unused to such and advanced city.

**o-0-o**

Things were getting worse in the Pegasus Galaxy, after the attack on Sateda their fleet had been sent out on more missions trying to pick off more of the Trinity Fleet but it was getting more hostile, they had two badly damaged Generation ships and had lost one all together in an engagement.

It had been a month since they had returned the Satedans to their world after the failed culling and true to his word John had set up a trade agreement with Cai. Sateda had an abundance of Trinium and Titanium both of which were valuable to Earth and Atlantis, and it was spread over their old cities which now lay in rubble.

John had asked only for these precious metals, in exchange he had agreed to an emergency aid package to be sent to them, from food, medicine, clothing and amenities. He also lent them twenty of his engineers for a week to help them get some of the city excavated and get some of the buildings stabilised.

Many had thought that Ronon would leave Atlantis, John and Teyla had both approached their burly friend to tell him that they would understand if his priorities had changed. Ronon however had told them that he was better suited to helping his people by staying on Atlantis than he could be potentially working in the forming government.

Both has been shocked by this, especially now that they were rebuilding their Homeworld but they respected his decision and they would not force the issue but support their friend in whichever way they could.

For some time, John had been suffering with dreams plagued by nightmares and dark feelings which were getting worse, he saw the fall of Earth, the destruction of Atlantis and the death of his friends, and one image he saw often was a single Wraith ship, one larger than the zpm augmented one that had attacked Earth and a feeling of dread filled him after each dream involving it.

The dreaming made him fear falling asleep and he continued to look more ragged, sometimes he woke after dreaming of Elizabeth who was screaming at him for his help but he was powerless to help her and he would wake with a start and could still hear her shouting his name.

His romantic relationship with Larrin had ended amicably, he didn't have the energy for it to continue and she had moved on from him to another, not that he cared he had merely liked her as a distraction.

Lantean society would not last, of this he was certain. The Travellers had not been happy with the destruction of one of their ships and the repair station was in the process of building them a new one but the damage had been done. And as for the Athosians, Teyla had discovered she had been excluded from a number of elder meetings and had found that more were being swayed towards leaving Lantea.

O'Neill had been appraised of the possibility that the society could potentially collapse and he had been disappointed but had agreed should that happen Lantean would honour the alliance between their peoples but the terms of which would need to change.

So instead John had held a meeting with Rodney as head Scientist and Christopher Du bois the head engineer and some of the workers and architects, their job was to find a way to get Atlantis's self-sufficiency upgraded, if they lost the Athosians they would lose the farming. So as a countermeasure HWC would be supplying them with more relief, sending them farming machines to be constructed and improved with new technologies and also providing them with some cattle and agricultural development produce.

Jack was also having more engineers from the ATF sent to Lantea on the next support ship sent, all of which would be put to work on the repair station and getting a new construction berth built. The damaged aurora-class fleet was now a very high priority.

However today was not a day for the breaking of the New Lantean Society, today was a day where the Lanteans visited Maldovarium and get to see the race Larrin had introduced them to.

Colonel Sheppard was in his room getting ready, in his wardrobe there was only a meagre amount of clothing, a number of standard Atlantis uniforms, some training clothes, his Airforce Service Dress Uniform and his High Lantean white robes.

The clothing itself was made of a micro-fibre, an advanced fabric developed by the Ancient Lanteans and contained bio-technologies woven into it which kept their temperature regulated and provided a level of protection.

John often found the uniform to be a little odd but had grown to like it, especially for formal occasions of Lantean State. He of course wore the Ancient Lantean gauntlets and wore a belt containing a personal shield emitter, guns were not permitted on the Maldovarium but he was not going defenceless.

Once he was presentable and he had taken two strong painkillers for his pounding head, his dreams were getting more vivid and he dreamt of battles between the Wraith and Ancient Lanteans more and often he could now remember them, other times he dreamt of a particular Wraith, one who terrified the Wraith and Ancient Lanteans.

But in his dream that night he had seen a man, a man with a devilish grin and brown hair. He had appeared within a dream where the Ancient Lanteans were developing a weapon for the war, a weapon that was controversial.

"It is time John Sheppard." The Ancient had said to him, "She is returning, but when she does you must be ready, they have found the spears location, you must stop them."

John had woken up after that, and the dream had shaken him to the core, he didn't know what it was he experience but it was enough to make his head hurt and cause his temper to fray.

However the Travellers knowing how skilled a pilot he was, even those aboard the roaming ships knew of his skills, had built with the help of Atlantis engineers built a speeder for the event and had asked John to race it.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Maldovarium – Generational Ship Judia**

Beth was watching through one of the windows near the ship infirmary where she worked with Phelan, they were approaching Maldovarium which was a small world brown world and as _Judia_ began to descend into its atmosphere she saw vast mountains and canyons and a huge desert.

"Impressive isn't it." Phelan said joining her and they saw seven other ships flying through the skies all of them on a path for the large mountains. "According to the captain many different races of being will be here."

"Like the Tok'ra and Jaffa?" Beth asked still looking out the window and she saw another Generational ship appear from the upper atmosphere.

"Tok'ra and Jaffa?" Phelan asked confused "I have not heard of these peoples."

"You wouldn't." Beth said frowning "They will not be here."

How she could know such a thing was still something she couldn't understand, but her dreams were getting more frequent and she had begun to dream of something shouldn't couldn't remember, but she knew there was something she must do.

"This is Litilia" the captain said over the internal communication system "We will be setting down in five minutes."

"Do we get to have a look?" She asked Phelan.

"I think we will." He said and he looked pained "I will remain here however."

"But…" Beth went to say but chose to remain silent, Phelan was a good physician but he didn't like meeting new people.

"Beth." Said the captain walking up behind them "You will accompany me."

"Do you mean to participate in this event?" she asked the captain. "I have heard tales that your people have competed before."

"We are here to trade only this time, but the event is a great thing to watch." Litilia said "However the _Uonos_ has a Speeder they will be using to participate."

"Have you ever won?" Beth asked "And what is the prize?"

"It differs" Litilia said "We have won the event four times in our people's history."

The ship shuddered slightly as they landed and Beth followed the captain through the corridors and they arrived at the starboard hatch where a set of steps had been raised to meet them.

"Captain Litilia!" said a deep voice from the bottom of the steps "It has been too long since we last saw you."

There was a man in front of them, he was rather tall but bald but what was most different about the man was that he was dark blue with red eyes.

"Locknah" Litilia said smiling "It is good to see you too, I hope things have been going well?"

"Of course." The man said bowing, "The Wraith do not venture out here and our defences have not been tested for four generations."

They walked out of the circular bay they hand landed in which was made of stone and interlaced with artificial structures which spoke of advanced technologies. Once out of the bay however they boarded a shuttle which sped them through the vast mountains Beth had seen when they were descending but when they emerged five minutes later she was open mouthed.

Maldovarium may have been a desert world but within the mountains was a vast oasis, and ad advanced looking city built of sparkling crystalline structures, interlaced through the city were rivers and trees and it was very green.

"Oh my." Beth said aloud.

"The reactions of many who first set eyes on Maldovar." Locknah said "We are lucky our ancestors found this place."

"You are not its builders?" Beth asked.

"No." Locknah said chuckling, "This was built by the Ancient Ancestors of your people as a place of relaxation, my people are native to this world, when they discovered our existence they negotiated a peace with us, they built this city and often came but then they were at war and never returned."

"It is not like other Ancestral cities." Beth noted.

"According to our histories it was built using a crystalline based technology, and chose to base the city on our own architectural designs." Locknah explained, "We have learnt a great deal from this city."

"Why is it you hold this event?" Beth asked with interest, "I have never heard of such a thing in this galaxy."

"We started the race as a means of acquiring technology and it evolved from there." The man said "In exchange for a great reward people compete, the only payment we get is any downed speeders."

They were shown to a section of the city where they could relax and where there was an open market where many of the spectators that were coming through the gate were setting up. The gate itself was only uncovered during the event and when the event was not being held they buried it.

Litilia left Beth in the market as she needed to check in with the second Traveller ship which had their Speeder aboard which they would be using to compete in the event.

Beth found herself walking from stall to stall looking at things that caught her eye, some sold foods and trinkets but others sold technologies and even shells for the Speeders that would be racing, according to the merchant all participants used the same base shell but each one would have their own technologies built into them.

Within the market she saw people of many different races, some were human, but she saw others who were not but they all spoke English and were trading and bartering materials and goods, as she walked she heard some speaking of a Free Market that would be held in a few weeks that many seemed to like attending.

She decided that she wanted to see the Travellers Speeder herself so she left the market place and walked towards the workshop that Litilia had said she was heading towards previously. As she walked away she missed the sight of five people walking into the marketplace dressed in white robes and she might have caught sight of the man that led them.

When she arrived however Litilia saw her and she was frowning not looking amused.

"Come with me please Beth, I have a just heard that some of the crew have taken people aboard." Litilia said "You can also try and convince Ayanna to come out onto this world, her husband is away and she is pregnant, she shouldn't stay cooped up."

"Sure okay." Beth said not wanting to say no after the hospitality of the captain.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Maldovarium – The Stadium**

Rodney was not often offered time off from Atlantis, but today the race across the planet affording him some leisure time and he thought that it would be a good time for him and Jenifer to spend some time together.

They made their way through the market place happily looking at everything, or Jenifer was and was happy going stall to stall, Rondey however mostly turned his nose up and some of the technology as it was inferior to Earths or the Ancients, but some of them looked curious and twice he had to be dragged away by Jenifer.

"Rodney look at these." She said pointing an odd rainbow coloured fruit, "Have you ever seen these?"

"No." Rodney said looking at them warily "Don't eat them!" he added when Jenifer went to take one and pay for it "If that contains any kind of citrus I cannot kiss you."

Jenifer laughed but didn't take it, instead she took two pastries and gave one to him.

"Odd place isn't it." She said as they passed through the city to get to the stadium, "I have never seen anything like this place in the Pegasus Galaxy."

"They are in the outer rim of this galaxy, the wraith mostly stay in the core, but this world is mostly barren with only this valley supporting life." Rodney said in explanation while trying to get a look at one of the stalls selling propulsion components for speeders. "They also keep their gate buried at all times apart from today for their race and they only hold them every seven years."

"Still I never thought other than ourselves, the Vanir, Wraith and Travellers were there any other advanced peoples." She said "But look, I can see four other races of being that we have never seen before."

Rodney looked around and she was right, he could see alien races he had never seen before, "You know Elizabeth, when she came as a replicator to Atlantis, she spoke of advanced races within Pegasus that stayed isolated to avoid the Wraith. I always thought she had encountered only the Travellers and Vanir myself but perhaps it was these other races she found."

"In the Milky Way there are many different races, like the Goa'uld, Unas, Serrakin, Re'tu and Reol" Jenifer said counting them off the top of her head "Here we have only found a race that was extinct, and the Vanir."

"It is a small dwarf galaxy, perhaps they all just live on the outer rim, or the Wraith or Asurans killed them." Rodney shrugged and they walked through a tunnel that opened up into a large stadium with seating on either side of a very large road, "You know I don't know why the Travellers are allowing Sheppard to race in this event."

"It is because they think it dangerous." Said an annoyed voice from behind them which turned out to be Teyla. "And he is foolish enough to accept."

Jenifer laughed lightly "He would never turn down the chance of participating."

"No he wouldn't." Rodney scoffed, remember how hard it was to keep him out of any new ship or vehicle, even when they went to Earth he would rent all manner of vehicles to get him from A to B.

"We should take a seat." Teyla said still not sounding happy, "Many of the city people are coming this way all heading for the stadium."

Under the stadium was a large open area with a number of bays where each of the twenty six racers were getting ready for the event.

John was standing near the speeder that the Travellers had built but the Atlantis mechanics had completed, the speeder looked like a Formula One car, but it had no wheels and small wheels, the rear however contained three small ion propulsion drives and under it was a magnetic field pulsar which allowed it to stay a foot or more above the ground by repelling a planets own magnetic properties.

He was not ignorant as to why the roaming Travellers has requested he drive, he was known to be the best pilot even among the Travellers but this race was dangerous and he wondered if they were actually trying to kill him.

But he was more excited about trying out the speeder, he had tried it once on the Atlantis Mainland but he would need to adapt to it quickly during the race.

"Are you ready Sheppard?" Larrin asked walking up to him with some of her people "You sure you can handle this speeder? Even on Earth I did not see anything like it."

"It is like a cross between a high performance racing car and an aircraft." John said smirking, he felt like it was his birthday or Christmas, "any advice?"

"Take it easy for the first quarter." Larrin said seriously, "You need to get a grasp for the speeder and learnt what the course is, just seeing the path of the course on the display will not be all you need, there are some hazardous areas on this planet and you need to have your wits about you."

"Sure." John said waving her concern off, "I have flown on missions like this, I am more concerned with the construction of the speeder, if any system fails it could be fatal."

"Both of our peoples looked it over Sheppard." Larrin pointed out "It will survive the course so long as you do not crash it."

**o-0-o**

The race had been going for two and a half hours and so far Beth had watched with rapt attention, it was exhilarating watching the racers speed around the planet surface, it was a dangerous course and already five ships had crashed.

But the remainder was still going strong, speeding a two hundred miles an hour through a course that twisted and turned and also contained obstacles the pilots had to avoid, they also had to avoid each other as two of the crashed ships had been because of violent piloting.

Her attention however was on the Lantean pilot who was in the Travellers speeder, she couldn't help but feel like amused at how good he was, it was not a surprise to her. She watched him navigate a canyon at high speed avoiding the rock formation that created obstacles like they were no bother and even managed to get further forward and moved up to sixth position in the race.

"He is very good isn't he." Ayanna said looking at the display in front of them, "Who is it anyway."

"John Sheppard." Beth said not taking her eyes off the screen.

"Do you know him?" Litilia asked abruptly.

"Who?" Beth asked confused.

"High Councillor Sheppard." She stated looking at her with wonder, "You said his name."

"Did I?" Beth said surprised, she hadn't even realised "That is his name?"

"Yes." Litilia said frowning "Did anyone tell you who our pilot was?"

"No." Beth said wondering just how she knew his name, "How could I know that."

"You are a Lantean." Litilia said shrewdly "You have to be, What is the name of your world?"

"I erm…" Beth said trying to remember but the name didn't come to her, but one thing did "Ohio."

"That is the name of your world?" Ayanna asked.

"No." Beth said disagreeing, it wasn't her world but it was connected to it, she was sure.

"Perhaps you should take her to the Lanteans?" Ayanna said quietly to the captain, "her memory comes back slowly, they might know her."

Litilia nodded, and beckoned for Beth to follow her, "they are on the other side of the Stadium, the leaders of this world set aside an entire box for them."

"Do you think they will know me?" Beth asked in wonder, "You said before you thought me one of them."

"You most definitely are." Litilia said deep in thought, "Your knowledge is incomplete but you can read Lantean, it is a language from another galaxy, no one in this galaxy apart from the Lanteans, Athosians and Travellers can read it. Some other things about you have for a long time pointed to you being of them, but the fact you know Sheppard confirmed it."

"Were you going to use me to make a trade with them?" Beth asked aware of how the Travellers often did business, "Would you trade me like produce and technology?"

"I…" Litilia went to say and she gave her a guilty look "I had been thinking on doing so yes, but I had not had the heart to do it, the Lanteans, and the society Sheppard has created allied him with our people. It would not be something I could do in good conscience as it could jeopardise our friendship."

Beth was surprised the usually sour captain was so honest, but she supposed that now was a time where she could be honest in hopes of making a better impression and to smooth out any possible trouble with a negotiation and prevent ill feeling. She herself had done that during International negotiations, or at least that's what she seemed to know.

The walk through the stadium took them some time as it was busy but Beth kept an avid eye on the monitoring screens, John was in trouble one of the other pilots had crashed into one of the stabilising wings on his speeder and he was having trouble manoeuvring.

Eventually they made it across the stadium and climbed the stairs to be confronted by a group of the Lantean security, they were not armed with weapons but guarded their peoples box.

"Who are you?" asked one of them and from his uniform Beth knew he was a Captain.

"I am captain Litilia of the roaming Travellers." Litilia said sternly not appreciating being challenged, "This is beth, who I believe to be one of your people."

The captain looked at them suspiciously "I do not know either of you."

Litilia rolled her eyes and raised her voice "Get Councillor Larrin, she will confirm who I am."

The young captain did not look like he was going to comply with her request but his fellow guard didn't wait and stepped into the private box and returned with Larrin.

"Litilia?" she said surprised and she looked at Beth but showed no signs of recognition "Why are you here? You declined our hospitality, and the request of many of our people who are here."

Beth could see the annoyance on her captain, she knew it was a sore point for many on the roaming ships that many of their people had settled elsewhere.

"I did but I bring someone I think the Lanteans will want to see." She told her ignoring her jibe, "This is Beth, I believe she is of Earth."

Larrin looked at her with a furrowed brow "I do not know you."

"No." Beth said "I do not think I have met you before."

"But you think you are from Earth?" Larrin asked "I know all of the Lanteans and I have never seen you on Atlantis."

"Atlantis." Beth said and a smile crept to her mouth, "The City of the Ancients."

"Yes." Larrin said and she gave her an odd look and looked over to Litilia for an explanation.

"Beth was found on Vulcia." The captain explained "She does not remember who she is, but her memories have been returning slowly. Her knowledge is odd, she calls our galaxy Pegasus, she can read Lantean and she has knowledge of places I have never heard of."

"Come with me, there is an easy way to find out." Larrin said and she walked through the open arch to the private box and she raised her voice "I have someone here who thinks they are from Earth, can you confirm if she is?"

Ahead a number of people turned around trying to see her so Beth stepped out from behind captain Litilia and there was a number of gasps from the assembled people.

She saw man with squared shoulders and eyes alert for a threat and a military haircut, another man smaller than the other with lopsided glasses and messy hair, and another man of a large stature with a light amount of stubble on his cheeks.

When he spoke he had an unmistakeable accent, "Dr Weir?" he muttered incredulously staring at her like he couldn't believe it.

The moment Beth saw them her mind seemed to ignite and memories flew back into her mind and the moment she heard what the man said she knew, it was like her memories had never been gone.

She smiled at them and a tears filled her eyes and she said happily "Major Lorne, Dr Zelenka, Carson it is so good to see you again.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! I want to know what you think!

Images of the various ships can be found on my Twitter Account,

Just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and scroll through the posts and you will find images of the Daedalus-Class, Ares-Class and the new _Prometheus-Class_

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	36. Chapter 36

Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Thirty six**

**The Message**

**Pegasus Galaxy – Maldovarium – The Stadium**

"Elizabeth?" Teyla said wide eyed staring at the woman in front of her "How is this possible."

The Lanteans all were staring at the woman who was so obviously their former expedition leader, or at least those that knew her were, the others who had never met Dr Weir were looking at her speculatively every member of the new Lantean Society had heard of her and her accomplishments.

"It was you wasn't it." Rodney said stepping forwards aghast "I thought I had imagined it but it was you."

"What are you talking about Rodney?" Jenifer asked him.

"When I was on that Puddlejumper about to be flown into a sun, I thought I saw her as I was falling unconscious, the next thing I knew I was in the Daedalus' medical bay." Rodney said looking at her, "You ascended didn't you."

"I'm not sure." The woman who looked and claimed to be Elizabeth said "I lost my memory, it is slowly coming back, you think it was me Rodney?"

"When you woke was you naked?" he asked suddenly and he received a smack on the head from Jenifer.

"McKay!" she said sternly "What sort of question is that!"

"When an ascended being is forced to the mortal plane from being an ascended being they return naked with some of their memories gone." Rodney said rubbing his head in pain "That same thing happened to…"

"Doctor Daniel Jackson." Elizabeth said almost to herself.

"Yes," Rodney said excitedly "You must have ascended and been cast out for helping me, you know what the Ancients are like with their non-intervention policies."

"It is so good to see you all again." Elizabeth repeated and she stepped up to Teyla and took hold of her arms and performed the traditional Athoisan greeting and their heads met "It feels like it has been so long."

"It has." Lorne told her "it has been close to five years since you trapped the Replicators in space."

"So long." Elizabeth said sadly "How much has changed?" she looked at Lorne for a moment and noticed the pins on his shoulders of his white Lantean uniform "You are a Lieutenant colonel now."

"Yes ma'am." He said flashing her a smile "And the Colonel Sheppard is a full Colonel now and his is also Commander of the Atlantis Expedition."

"He has led you well." Elizabeth agreed but as she said it she frowned "I am sorry I often say things for reasons I cannot explain, but I know he stole the city from Earth."

"Do you have any memories from you time as an Ascended being?" Teyla asked "Did you meet the ancestors?"

"I'm not sure, maybe." Elizabeth said but she sounded unsure, "If I truly did ascend then I would have but I do not remember, in truth I do not know how I even reached the Higher plane."

"Ah yes." Rodney said "you were a replicator, as a species they were incapable of ascension."

There was a loud cheer from the crowd in the stadium and they all turned and had forgotten that their leader was currently racing around the planet, he was still in the race and was going hard but the chances of him winning were slim.

"John." Elizabeth whispered to herself but she was heard by Teyla.

"You know he has missed to deeply." The Athosian woman whispered to her "he was very distraught after our last meeting."

Elizabeth smiled unknowingly and Teyla smiled broadly, she had often wondered what was between them both and she wondered if they even both knew how they felt themselves.

"Sheppard is doing well." Larrin said for everyone's benefit "He won't win this race not with that damage but he might manage to finish second overall."

"I cannot wait for him to see you Elizabeth." Carson said smiling "Even if he doesn't win this race I think he will be more than happy to have you over a win here."

**o-0-o**

The race went on for another hour, and it ended with John coming in a very close second but his speeder had been severely damaged in the last three miles of battling the speeder that had won the race.

He managed to get the Traveller Speeder over the finish line despite the damage and spluttering of its propulsion drive and almost crashed it into a wall as its braking mechanisms were shot but managed to get it to a slow stop and it was collected by the Maldovarium people to be transported away.

The crowd was going crazy having never seen such a close race and as it was the Lanteans first participation in the event and had been the underdogs their accomplishment was the more impressive but it was the Lanteans dressed in their white clothing that drew Johns attention.

Walking out to meet him were the high council and many of the senior members of Atlantis, and they were smiling happily and John wondered why his second place position had them so happy.

"Well done John." Teyla said smiling and he noted her eyes held an odd devilish look, which made him wonder what she was up to, "Shame you could not win but second place is still an accomplishment."

"He played dirty." John said darkly shooting the winner a look, he was an alien on an unknown species but was a good pilot.

"Sheppard we have a surprise for you." Rodney said rocking on the balls of his feet excitedly "you will not believe who has come here today."

"What is it Rodney?" John asked resigned, thinking anything that makes Rodney excited would be a buzz kill.

"Hello John." Said a voice from behind the group.

John turned towards the source, but he had heard that voice before, it was voice that had plagued his dreams and one he refused to accept existed here on a planet a long way from him bed on Atlantis where he was wide awake.

The gathered Lanteans parted and as they revealed a woman standing in a rough clothing but she was smiling broadly as she saw him, he recognised her instantly.

"But...'Lizabeth?" he said barely forming sentence.

"It is me John." She said walking towards him "You raced well, I see your piloting skills have not deteriorated since you took command of the city."

"Well not yet but if I drive a desk much longer I might forget some of my best moves." John commented but he had not taken his eyes from her. "How?"

"I am not sure." She admitted "I think I ascended and was returned by the Ancients. I woke up on a world where there are stories of men and women who have fallen from the heavens, I was found by the sisterhood there and I was found by the roaming Travellers."

"Is it really you?" he asked hesitantly "You are not a replicator?"

"No." Elizabeth said but she gave him a rueful look "I know you cannot be sure until you have tested me, but I promise that I am me John."

John was conflicted, he wanted it to truly be Elizabeth but he had to be sure, he looked to Lt. Colonel Lorne, "We will leave this planet now, and take her with us but she is to be under guard. Can you stay with Larrin and represent us here?"

"Yes Sir." Lorne said nodding and he smiled at Elizabeth and left with Larrin to meeting with the Maldovarium High Minister.

"Are we going back to Atlantis?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yes." John said tersely, "I am sorry but you will be under guard and restrained until Doctor Becket or Keller confirm you are not a Replicator."

"Of course." She said smiling with understanding "You would not be a good commander if you did not take precautions John."

John hid a small smile and led them back to the outer edges of the city and to the docking point where their Puddlejumper was parked. Elizabeth was handcuffed and a blindfold placed over her eyes so she could not see the gate address and they flew through the gate to random empty planet before gating to Atlantis.

Once they were in the city her blindfold was removed and she caught the first sight of Atlantis since she had brought the Replicators here after they had digitally ascended.

"It is good to be home." She said "I dreamt of this moment for so long."

"This is Sheppard." John said into the radio "I need a security team to the Jumper bay immediately."

"John I know you are being cautious but I mean you no harm." Elizabeth said, but John ignored her and he flew the ship up to bay above the gate and parked.

"Stand up." John said refusing to look at her as the rear ramp lowered and five security personnel stood armed with wraith stunners, ARG's and even P90's. "Escort 'liz… the prisoner to the infirmary, Carson I will need to you run every test you can think of to be sure she is not a plan."

"But John…" Carson went to say but was silenced by a glare from him.

"Get it done Doctor Becket." John commanded, and he stalked out of the Jumper bay and down the stairs and stormed into his office ignoring the confused looks of the Operations staff.

He refused to accept that it was her until Carson had run every test imaginable, she could be a replicator, or a clone, some form of copy or just an imposter. His 'lizabeth had died sacrificing herself to save Atlantis, this woman could not be who she claimed to be, he had mourned her and buried his grief long ago."

He was facing the wall where a number of photographs of the original Atlantis Expedition including Lieutenant Aiden Ford and Elizabeth, there was also a number of keepsakes including a watch that he had kept and it was something that pained him to look at.

A knock on the door interrupted his walk down memory lane, and he didn't need to look round to know who it was.

"Come in Teyla." He said knowing she would never let him wallow in his misery.

"You know it is her don't you." She said quietly.

John said nothing, he would not even allow any hope to reach his mind and heart.

"You know what you are feeling now is how I felt every time I thought I had a lead when I was searching for my people." Teyla said with so much sincerity that John actually turned round and he saw the understanding in her eyes "I understand you do not wish to be disappointed but I do not think that you will be."

John sighed, he should have known she would not make him feel better but she was right even if it was something he didn't truly want to acknowledge, he took a seat at his desk, a desk Weir had once held.

"You know this is going to have greater ramifications back home." John told her, "She has been classified as dead on Earth, her mother was told she was dead."

"Rodney told us when we were watching you race that Doctor Jackson has done this twice before." Teyla said "Is this not something Earth has dealt with before?"

"Yes, but the good doctor was someone who existed on the fringe of society due to his beliefs" John tried to explain, Jackson was an important person to the gate program and the recent history Earth history and his contributions were huge, but they were unknown to most. "Doctor Jackson is only a person of note to the SGC, 'lizabeth was an accomplished and renown diplomat, her death was something of a big deal back home, even if they don't all know where she went for four years."

Teyla gave him a very firm look "You will have to face what you feel John, and you might find it helps."

Not understanding what his close friend met who looked at her blankly and she shook her head and left his office.

The testing being conducted on Elizabeth was ongoing, John accessed the internal sensors and security cameras in the infirmary to keep an eye on her and accessed the medical data Carson and Jenifer were recording live and so far he saw that even the preliminary results showed that she was human and the DNA test matched samples taken from her time as Commander.

An errant thought began to settle into his mind and he needed to get the ball rolling on the possibility that it was her. Pulling his personal laptop toward him he opened up his email and began to write something to General O'Neill, he would know what to do.

_General, I hope you are well and this doesn't stop you from fishing. But a situation has arisen on Atlantis that I need your advice on…..._

**Milky Way Galaxy – Unified Terran Ship George Hammond **

General Carter was sitting on the bridge of Hammond, working at a station while they travelled through hyperspace, she preferred keeping busy during travel rather than remain in the chair.

Homeworld Command had sent them on a mission based on something that had been detected on their new satellite monitoring network that has been placed in any system that held a world that fell in the old Protected Planets Treaty.

According to HWC the network had detected what had been identified as hyperspace windows opening within the protected systems only for no ship to be detected by their satellite sensors and then a second window would open presumably a ship jumping back to hyperspace.

Why this caused so much concern was if the Alliance had developed a cloaking technology that allowed them to exit hyperspace and remain undetected by their sensors then they could pose a threat to Earth and they needed to find the cause of these hyperspace windows in case it wasn't even the Alliance.

That was the mission assigned to _Odyssey_ and _George Hammond_ and they were currently in different locations trying to investigate the unknown entities causing HWC to worry.

Sam was looking over the data on a terminal saw that twenty such events had occurred and on each of them the satellite had failed to detected a ship of any changes to the planet or its people but in some systems they had detected more than one occasion where something has arrived through hyperspace and then left, it was so odd their sensors couldn't detect the ships, they were no as advanced as the Asgard or Ancient Lantean but they were based on their technologies so they should be detecting more than they were.

"General, we are two minutes out from our destination." Major Kleinman, the ships navigator reported.

Nodding Sam closed down her workstation and exited from her files and then abandoned the terminal and another crew member took her place and Sam took her seat just as her ship was preparing to exit hyperspace over their destination.

As the blue swirling vortex vanished, the ship was deposited above Svoriin, a planet Sam had visited the world twice as a member of SG:1 but after their mission the address was locked out due to the infestation of killer insects but some on Earth argued it would make for a good colony as it was already built.

"Anything on the sensors?" She asked turning to Kleinman.

"Not yet General" said Major Kleinman the navigator "As far as I can tell there has been no change in the planet or surrounding space since our satellite was deposited here and from the two sweeps of the systems we have done over the years."

"Well keep working the sensors try and see if there is anything out their hiding" She ordered and then pressed a button on her chair patching herself through to a team in one of the F302 bays "Colonel Maddox, you are cleared to take a jumper and your team down to the planet, report back within the next hour."

"Confirmed General" he said and she watched as the jumper piloted out of the left bay.

Three hours later they were no further in understanding the data, the Jumper had found nothing untoward, and there was no life on the planet other than the giant insects. Sam was not idle and was passing the time looking of the data in as many ways as she could think of, but so far had failed to find the answer.

Homeworld Command was aware of the situation and it had been reported that the _Odyssey_ had found the same results on their planet and had moved onto another.

_Hammond_ however remained over Svoriin as they wanted a more detailed analysis of the planet to see if it could be a future colony so five teams had been sent down to the planet armed with personal shield devices, prototypes reverse engineered from the Ancient Lantean devices in case they drew the attention of the insects.

Two days later when Sam was about to give up having not been able to get any more information, the only success they had was the teams they sent down to the planet learning more about its former inhabitants and their Norse influence culture and their buildings and infrastructure.

"General! We are receiving a subspace communication from the _Odyssey_" the communications officer reported urgently "patching it on screen"

"Sam, we are at Cimmeria" Mitchel said from his chair "A hyperspace window just opened on the opposite side of the planet."

"And what came through" she asked with great interest

"We think it was a ship, we are powering up the engines to get a look" Mitchell said and he pointed to one of his crew and issued a command.

"Are you getting any readings at all?" Sam questioned.

"No, the planet its blocking our scans" Mitchel replied, but then his face changed to a frown "Whoever it is have detected us, either they are detecting our scans or can see through our cloak, they are fleeing."

"Your cloak is based on Ancient Alteran technology; even Atlantis's sensors struggle to detect even the slightest trace of _Odyssey_" She stated very concerned "Can you intercept them before they…"

"They are already jumping to hyperspace!" Mitchel interrupted and turned to his Helmsman "Track that ship trajectory and jump up us to hyperspace we will chasing them down."

"Did you get a look at the ship?" Sam asked quickly trying to get as much information as she could "any idea on the type of vessel?"

"No, but I could use some help, the Hammond is faster than this tub." Mitchel said and he gave an order for a subspace data packet bust to the Hammond from his navigator, "I have sent you the data, get here soon"

"General we have received the unknown vessels trajectory," Kleinman said inputting the coordinates into the navigation computer "plotting our intercept path."

"No wait!" Sam ordered holding out her hand to stall him from jumping them to hyperspace "Keep us in position!" she walked back over to her terminal at the back of the bridge and brought up a star map, "Major you have command of the ship, plot a course back to Earth and report our full findings. I will be taking a puddle jumper down to the planet. But first I need you to send a message."

Kleinman frowned but left his seat to the right of the command chair and was relieved by a young captain and he took Sam's vacant seat.

The ship's captain rushed out of the Bridge as fast as she could run through the ships compartments until she reached the portside fighter bay. Once there she had one of her pilots who had the ATA gene fly her down to the Stargate below.

The jumper dialled the gate bypassing the need for the DHD on the planet surface and they sped through the active wormhole and then exiting on a different world, this one populated but they remained undetected by activating the Jumpers cloak and then ascended up into space and waited.

Sam and her pilot were waiting for ten minutes before a hole ripped open in the fabric of the universe and from this hole a large ship was deposited into real space and it immediately opened a channel to the uncloaking jumper.

"General Carter, the _Ares_ stands ready to assist you." Said Captain Hewitt over the radio, "We received the message from your ship."

"Thank you for getting here so quickly captain" she said smiling relieved at the quick time they had made, the Ares may have been the prototype of its class but it was still the most formidable ship in the fleet and its sister ships _Emmerson_ and _Grigorovich_ were almost ready for testing and they were even stronger being the finalised production design. "Can we come aboard?"

"The cargo bay is open; the shield will allow the jumper entry." Hewitt told her "come aboard."

Once docked Sam was escorted to the bridge, and as she walked through the compartments she could see the similarities to the BC303b, BC304, _Atlantis_ and _Valliant_ within the ships design, it was a marvel of technology even more considering it was developed in secret by the Institute.

"General welcome aboard the _Ares_." Hewitt said warmly in his polite British way, "We received the intercept path for this unknown vessel, but I have to ask, how do you expect to get them to drop out of hyperspace?"

"I intend to disrupt their functions by producing a field that will create a fault in all hyperdrive systems that are not protected against such an attack." Sam said holding up a data crystal, "I just need to input the necessary adaption to the shield emitter relays around this ship, I have been working on this defence technology with a friend at Area 51 using the research of the late Dr Amanda Perry to help us."

"Helmsman take us out!" Harper ordered, he pressed a button and he began to address the crew "Bridge to the Engine Room, I need to you to integrate the zpm into our power systems now and monitor our power flow carefully. Lieutenant please divert power from non-critical systems into propulsion and hyperdrive." The captain added looking at one of his Bridge crew "and then he finally nodded to the navigator, "Take us out, and at our top speed, we have a ship to catch!"

The ship accelerated at an incredible rate as its engines came online and it banked sharply, and a new hyperspace window opened and the ship disappeared into it in a blur and entered subspace.

With the ship in hyperspace Hewitt left his command chair allowing his second in command to take the charge in his absence and gestured for Sam to follow him.

"Before we met with you, we used the gate on the planet we were monitoring to speak with Earth and they supplied us with a very near depleted zpm so the chances are we will only get one shot at this intercept General. That ship is fast but with the help of the zpm augmenting our systems we might be able to push this ship faster than it was designed to go."

"I know our window of opportunity is small, but we only need to get within range of the ship to activate the disruption field." She told him as he escorted her to the auxiliary control room "this theory works even on our own Asgard designed hyperdrive systems and sporadically on the Aurora-class drives. So whoever we are chasing should have no chance of getting away if we reach them."

When they arrived in the auxiliary control room Sam was given access to alter the operating the systems by the captain and she began to get to work on integrating a new program into the shield emitters and they only had a short window for her to get it done.

**Milky Way Galaxy –Unified Terran Ship Odyssey **

Aboard _Odyssey_ the technicians used all of the sensor readings available to them to track the ship they were trailing, but it was hard to track something in hyperspace from within hyperspace and the speed of the unknown vessel was shocking, even with their own zpm and subspace capacitor installed they were struggling to keep up.

They were slowly lagging behind but the ship was able to stay on their tail and continue to feed navigational data to the Earth assets through a discrete subspace link.

"Sir!" said his sensor operator called "We have received a coded message from a ship of the fleet, General Carters is in pursuit and is going to activate something that may disrupt our flight through hyperspace."

"Keep following the ship!" Mitchell ordered firmly, he had an idea what Sam was planning and she would need to pinpoint their target to a fairly accurate location.

Five minutes later _Odyssey_ began to detect something odd and the computers began to beep detecting some form of error with their navigation through hyperspace, and the blue swirling vortex of hyperspace began to be disrupted by some form of electrical discharge.

"Sir?" asked his helmsman looking out in front with concern as the ship shook.

"Drop us out now" Mitchel ordered.

His order was acted on and they dropped out in in a large star system, it had fifteen planets and three stars within it and they dropped out safely within the system, as they dropped out the hyperspace window remained open longer than normal and the electrical discharge could be seen crackling dangerously as it closed.

were met to a spectacular light show of a nebular and they exited hyperspace within a large system with three stars and fifteen planets, deeper within the system another hyperspace window opened and a larger ship materialised only as it did the hyperspace window remained open longer than normal and it crackled with some form of electrical discharge.

In the centre of the system ahead of them was a ship, and _Odyssey_ instantly recognised it as a ship of the fleet.

"Ah, she used the _Ares_!" Mitchell commented as he saw the ship, it being the only deployed BC305 in the Earth Fleet and therefore easily recognisable, but it was the fastest ship and best equipped ship they had.

"Sir we have pushed our propulsion systems past optimum design specifications and they have been damaged but we will need to be careful not shred them entirely." His navigator said receiving a report from the engine room, "We are on an approach but we will need to take it slow."

"_Ares_!" Mitchell called over an open broadcast "So where is our uninvited guest?"

However, he needn't have asked as _Odyssey_ detected a disturbance in subspace through its sensors and the computer was unable to quantify what it was detecting other than a slowly decelerating ship within subspace.

Within the empty space in front of them an electrical storm appeared sparking dangerously, and then an unstable hyperspace window ripped open and more electrical energy poured out of it and accompanying was a lone ship that was tumbling through space uncontrollably.

The ship was roughly half the size of the _Prometheus II_ and its design was unlike any that General Carter and Mitchell had ever seen and while it had arrived floundering in space it had quickly regained control of itself and its trajectory levelled out between both the _Ares_ and _Odyssey_.

"General, I am registering a low power output and they currently have no shields, and are not powering weapons but they are beginning to move away." The sensor analysist said "our computer is unable to recognise the design."

Cam stood from his chair in school looking at the ship, from the overall design and layout, it all had him silent and eyeing it with confusion and awe.

Over on the Ares, Sam was also looking at the ship in surprise, while the other crew tried to identify it.

"That's impossible" Sam whispered to herself as she watched the ship begin to accelerate.

"Do you recognise that ship?" Captain Hewitt asked her having heard her.

"Not the class, but I know its design" she said in awe.

"Is it Goa'uld? Replicators? Ori? Wraith?" Hewitt demanded wondering what kind of enemy they could be facing.

"No" Sam said stepping closer to the window to watch the ship come about and face them. "That ship should not exist."

"Carter who does that ship belong to?" he asked again.

She turned back to him and pointed behind her to the ship that was accelerating towards them but on a path that would give the ship a good view of the ship when it went past, "That ship is of Asgard design, I would recognise that technology and design anywhere even if I haven't seen that class of ship before."

Not wasting the opportunity Sam took the liberty of walking to Hewitt's command seat and pressed the communication control and opened up a channel to the ship.

"This is General Samantha Carter aboard the Earth Ship _Ares_, calling the Asgard Vessel." She said in a calm voice "We have reason to believe that the Asgard are dead, so identify yourself."

The odd small scout ship manoeuvred passed the Ares but it slowed down for a moment but then began to move further away and they detected a hyperspace window forming in front of it.

Just as it was entering hyperspace a reply was heard in both ships.

"All questions will be answered, but now is not that time, you will have to be patient."

And then the ship accelerated into the window and was gone.

"General was that an Asgard?" Hewitt asked awed having never had the opportunity to meet one of the legendary members of the Alliance of Great Races and former ally of Earth.

Sam frowned looking at the space where the ship had fled, the voice had sounded familiar even though it was a little off but it made her stop and think.

"No captain that was not just any Asgard." She told him before looking back out through the window wondering just what had happened and how it was all possible. "I think it might be possible that the Asgard are not as dead as we thought."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis **

John work we a start, it had been two days since they had returned from Maldovarium, and two days since they had found Elizabeth, and two days since he had seen her. His dreams were again plagued with nightmares of a single wraith on his large evil ship and watching as a Lantean scientists created a device that looked like a spear.

The dreams did little to improve Johns tense mood, he shaved and showered and dressed himself smartly for his upcoming day, he had a meeting with the Satedan representative today and a number of other city responsibilities to take care of.

But he knew that one responsibility was one he was shirking away from.

Elizabeth.

Even the name made him uncomfortable with himself, he knew that Carson and Jenifer had run every test imaginable on her three times and each one come back showing the women to be a flesh and blood human with no traces of any nantites and she wasn't even a clone.

Their lack of results made John more suspicious and he wondered how she was here and if this was not some kind of trick. He had mourned Elizabeth, she was dead. Twice he had actually mourned her, the first has been when she had been lost on Asura and the second when she walked through the gate to trap her fellow replicators.

Others on Atlantis were happy to accept this woman as Elizabeth but John was not, he had a security team follow her around the clock and had restricted her access to the city. Not that it mattered as she only seemed to go from her quarters, to the medical floors and to the mess.

Teyla, McKay, Carson and even Ronon had tried to convince him that she truly was who she said she was but John had not listened.

He arrived in the Operations centre and said his good mornings and made his way into his office, an office that had once belonged to Elizabeth. He shook his head to clear that thought away and tried to submerge himself in the reports he needed to get done and had been due for weeks.

So intent of focusing on this task he did not notice when someone approached the doorway.

"Things must be bad if you are willingly completing your reports." Said a small amused voice.

Johns head snapped up and he saw her standing in the door way with her escorts just behind her, he quickly glanced around the room and he eyed up the second exit and wondered if he could bolt but the woman seemed to guess his intention so spoke.

"John." She said "It is me, I am alive and in front of you."

John glared at her, "Can you offer me any proof?"

"No." she said sadly but she looked thoughtful, "But I do remember how I ascended."

"How?" John asked, he was curious especially as he had once nearly done it himself.

"Janus." She answered simply "You remember the story the older me told us?"

"Yes." John nodded, "I am aware of who Janus was, he was a renegade scientist here in Atlantis."

"He had not changed much since." Elizabeth laughed but he thought she looked surprised by her words as much as he was, "At least I think that's true, my memories are all hazy and mixed together."

John however wondered if it had been Janus who saved her, it would make more sense that Elizabeth ascending on her own with no training.

"How did you come to be with the Travellers?" John asked changing the subject, "Surely you must have known you were of Earth."

She looked very sad for a moment "For a time I didn't know, I had feint snippets of old memories but none of them told me who I was or where I was from. At the temple I gained some memories and even with the Travellers I recovered others but being back here seems to be the tonic to my memory loss."

John sat silent, she had not answered his question and she understood after a wary pause.

"They visited the temple to trade, I can read our English and the captain of the Traveller ship assumed I was from Earth." She said and she looked around the office and noticed something on his desk "You have my father's watch."

Looking down he saw that it was still on the desk from where he had left it earlier when he had been thinking of her.

"I kept it as a reminder of you." He admitted and he picked it up and held it out to her having no right to it now, "it has helped me remember my duty a number of times."

Elizabeth took it and opened it and looked at it fondly, "I was surprised to learn you took command of the Expedition John, but from what I have been told you have done a very good job. I always thought you were more than a military officer with a chip on his shoulder."

"Atlantis is my home and it is here in Pegasus I have found my calling and purpose." John shrugged, "On Earth I was lost but here I know what I need to do."

"Do you believe that I am Elizabeth Weir." She asked him.

John looked at her carefully and he knew that she was who she said she was, but he was struggling to allow himself to truly believe it, "Yes." He said sighing "I have missed you 'Lizabeth, since you have been gone something has been missing from Atlantis that no one has been able to fill."

Elizabeth smiled genuinely "You're not going soft on me are you John?"

Laughter rose up out of John and it was the first time in months he had laughed, "Perish the though." He eventually sobered up and he looked at Elizabeth curiously "Why did you return?"

"I broke the laws of the ascended." She shrugged, "I saved Rodney, I at least I think I did. But I think I may have done more but until my memories come back I will not no."

"What is the last thing that you remember?" John asked, "Do you remember anything about your time as an ascended being?"

Elizabeth frowned and closed her eyes thinking "Someone sent me back, I don't remember who but I they told me that, someone, Vanir? They were looking for something, something the ascended feared, they wanted me to stop it."

Blinking John suddenly remembered his dream, the ancient Lantean scientists working on a device in secret and then another ancient Lantean had looked at him and told him the spear had been found."

"I think I have been dreaming about it." John said quietly, "I…" he pressed his ear piece and said "Rodney can you come to my office please."

"I am a little busy." Rodney responded "I am…."

"Now!" John snapped tersely.

"Fine." Rodney replied.

"You know these Vanir?" Elizabeth asked him with interest, "Who are they?"

"Asgard." John explained, "They are an offshoot from an earlier point in Asgard history, splitting away from Ida to research a way to prevent the genetic degradation from ending their race."

"I remember." Elizabeth said with a faraway look "Do they reside in metal suits?"

"Yes." John acknowledged "You saw them while you digitally ascended?"

"I think I may have, or one of my fellow Asurans had." She said "It is hard to remember my time as a Asuran."

Rodney walked into his office then and he was surprised to find them sitting together and it caused him to pause, "So you two are friends again?"

"Rodney." John said with a tone of warning "What do you know of an Ancient Lantean device that resembled a spear?"

"A what?" he said bewildered.

"A Spear." John repeated "The Vanir are looking for a spear and I think they may have found it, I know it was created by the Ancient Lanteans."

"For what purpose?" Rodney asked not sure what they were talking about.

"I don't know. But I am hoping you can take a look in the Atlantis database for anything about a device that looks like a spear."

"You can't be serious!" Rodney exclaimed "That is like looking for a reference to a fuse in the database, there will be so many results it will be impossible to sift through."

"Well you better get started." John said and he again remembered the warning, "If the Vanir are after it then it must have been important as they only care about curing themselves."

"I will get a team on it." Rodney relented realising John was not going to back down.

"Good, Now I have to dial Earth." John said standing up and he looked at Elizabeth, "I am sending you back to Earth, you will need to be debriefed and formally brought back from the dead. General O'Neill will be able to get that all sorted for you and he might even have a job for you."

"But I have only just go back here." Elizabeth protested, "I do not want to go to Earth."

"I know," John said grimly, "But for now you have to return, I actually think you might be surprised by a lot that has happened."

"What about the spear and the Vanir?" She asked him looking for any way to stay.

"They will still be in Pegasus when you return." John said trying to sound sure of himself, but in truth he was not, the Vanir had found the spear, and whatever its purpose was would mean trouble of Atlantis."

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! I want to know what you think!

I actually found the Weir and Sheppard reunion hard to write.

Images of the various ships can be found on my Twitter Account,

Just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and scroll through the posts and you will find images of the Daedalus-Class, Ares-Class and the new _Prometheus-Class_

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	37. Chapter 37

Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Thirty Seven**

**Castor and the Culling**

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth **

General Landry stood at the bottom of the newly renovated ramp in the Gateroom, the gate was dialling and he was expecting a very important visitor. The updates to his facility was still ongoing, the base was having its corridors updates to match the Gateroom and above him in the old missile silo a jumper bay was being constructed that could contain up to four Puddle Jumpers.

He knew that at some point the World Council would finally decide on the future of the SGC but due to their ongoing operations the base had been updated and he thought that it was for the better and it felt much more secure if a little foreign to him still.

"Incoming off world activation!" said the Chief from above as the chevrons it up and the wormhole established but was blocked by the shield, "Detected Atlantis IDC."

"Deactivate the shield chief" Landry called and when the shield deactivated a moment later a lone woman stepped through the gate and the General smiled at her warmly "Dr Weir, it is good to see you with us once more."

"General Landry." Elizabeth said returning his smile "It is good to see you are still in command here." She looked around the Gateroom and took in the improvements, "I see the SGC has changed since I was last here."

"A great many things have changed since you disappeared Dr Weir." Landry said and he gestured for her to follow him, "I am afraid we do not have time for a long discussion you are expected aboard the Valliant."

"The Valliant?" she questioned confused.

"Another one of those changes I was telling you about." He said with a smile, and he led her to the elevator and pressed the button. "You must know that you have been greatly missed by many here on Earth."

Elizabeth nodded but remained mute, he assumed she was overwhelmed.

"So you have seen what Sheppard has done on Lantea." Landry said to break the silence, "you know many in the Air Force were very angry when he stole Atlantis."

That elected a small chuckle from Elizabeth.

"He has done well since he technically stole it." Landry admitted "I have seen the settlement he has had built on Lantea and I have to say I am impressed by it, he has taken his position very seriously but has ruffled many feathers of the top brass here on Earth, he is definably no diplomat."

"The settlement?" Elizabeth asked curiously "he rebuilt it?"

Landry was surprised by her question "Did Sheppard not explain what he has built?"

"No." Elizabeth said and she paused for a moment "He was not convinced I was who I claimed to be, I have only spoke with some of the original expedition members and they were careful not to tell me much."

"I see." Landry replied and he considered if he could tell her but he didn't see the harm as she was already cleared as being Dr Weir in the flesh and not some elaborate ruse. "Well he brought together the Athosians and the travellers and created a single society for mutual support and protection. The settlement was built to house them and he has built quite the place, it is very unique."

"Much like John." Elizabeth smiled "You know he and General O'Neill are very alike, and the General has rubbed elbows with many people over the years."

"True enough." Landry chuckled, Jack was not afraid to challenge people and overstep his authority occasionally, they arrived on the floor above and as they walked they were met with an excited looking Doctor Jackson "Doctor, I thought you were supposed to be getting ready for you journey to the Nox homeworld."

"I am but I wanted to meet Elizabeth." He said and he turned to her "Dr Weir welcome back from the higher plane. I can speak from experience that returning with your memories scrambled is an odd experience."

"Doctor Jackson." Elizabeth smiled and she looked very happy to see him "I am glad to see you, you are the only person I know who understands what this is like."

"It gets easier." Daniel shrugged "I have done it twice and I have to say the second time was much easier, how is the memory recall?"

"Better now I am surrounded by people I once knew." She admitted, "More comes back each day but I still have gaps."

"Well should you want to talk about it I will be happy to help." Daniel said sincerely "But you have to excuse me as I have a meeting with the Nox."

"Of course." Elizabeth said "Thank you for taking the time to check in Doctor, I may take you up on your offer."

Landry led Elizabeth into the Jumper Bay, where a young female captain stood waiting, "Captain Lyre will fly you directly to Homeworld Command, General O'Neill is expecting you and you know he doesn't have the best patience."

Elizabeth nodded and followed the captain into the Puddle Jumper and she settled into one of the chairs in the forward section and they cloaked and began to ascend out of the silo into the skies above the mountain.

**o-0-o**

Elizabeth sat silently on the Puddle Jumper as they flew through the upper atmosphere on Earth and they passed over America and after an hour they were over the North Atlantic Ocean and she was content to sit in silence and try to get her thoughts straight, but she still couldn't remember everything, some of her memories of her diplomatic career was still missing, her clearest memories were those from the time she left for Pegasus.

"The Valliant is just up ahead Dr." The Air Force captain told her "We will be there in a few minutes."

The Jumper passed through a thick cloud layer and when they were through she saw what she assumed was the Valliant.

"That's impressive." Elizabeth said open mouthed "What is it?"

"It's the Valliant Dr." The captain said as she began their approach, "The mobile headquarters of Homeworld Command and the defence platform for the defence of Earth."

Elizabeth heard the tone of pride in the captain's voice and thought it well founded, the Valliant was a marvel of Earth workmanship, she recognised the influences of Ancient technology and parallels with Atlantis.

"Jumper One to Flight we are on approach and request permission to land." The captain said over the radio "I have Dr Weir aboard for a meeting with the General."

"This is flight, we note your approach Jumper One and land on the northern landing strip." Replied a man with a distinct Spanish accent, "You will need to be quick as we are expecting a Tok'ra emissary at any moment and their ship will be landing on Valliant and it is much larger than your jumper."

"Understood." The captain replied and she flew the small manoeuvrable ship down and over the flying platform and she landed on the platform and then the moved into one of the hangers

Once docked within the Valliant Hanger they were met by members of the support staff who escorted Elizabeth though the halls and eventually she was in front of the office of General Jack O'Neill.

She knocked and stepped through into the sparse office and she noted that unlike his old office this had no mess or papers, even if it was very modern and contained advanced computer systems.

General O'Neill was standing at the large window, looking out into the skies and clouds and the glimpses of the oceans below.

"General." Elizabeth said looking at him.

"Dr Weir." Jack replied the greeting and he turned around and Elizabeth was a little startled by the changes to the man, he was much larger than she remembered and he had aged, but she didn't let her thoughts show on her face, "You know when someone ascends and returns from the dead it does create a great deal of paper work."

"It has only happened twice in the history of the gate program." Elizabeth said shaking her head hearing his amusement and knowing he hated paperwork.

"Daniel has always been a pain in my ass." Jack acknowledged and he walked to his desk "But he was not a notable diplomat and he wasn't missed by many. Your return will be much harder to facilitate and I am afraid that for the time being you will not be able to return to Earth publically, at least until we can arrange a suitable cover."

Elizabeth understood that and had known it would be difficult, but she only had one request, "I would like my mother to know I am still alive."

Jack nodded "She does not have security clearance but I can get that arranged but she will be the only one outside of the Program who can know. I have to ask you what your plans are Elizabeth, I am hoping to find a place for you so somewhere."

It was a question she had not thought to have posed to her and it was one she hadn't really thought of, but the answer presented itself to her immediately "I want to return to Atlantis, I had a job to do there and it was one I left unfinished, no other job can compare to it."

Jack smiled and looked amused "I was hoping you would say that." He said and he held up a report from his top drawer, "This is the full medical report completed by the Medical Team on Atlantis, they have cleared you as being Dr Elizabeth Weir, but they did not carry out the psychiatric evaluation which will be required after you long tenure away as they do not have a psychologist on staff anymore."

"What happened to Doctor Kate Heightmeyer?" Elizabeth asked remembering the doctor as one of the original members of her Expedition who Jack had recommended to her for the Expedition due to work.

"Doctor Heightmeyer died over close to four years ago on Atlantis." Jack said in a low regretful voice, "She has been greatly missed."

"Why do I need to sit on a couch?" Elizabeth asked, "I am fine."

"It's mandatory." Jack said firmly "Daniel had to go through it when he returned and even though we now know more about ascension it is still the process. Added to that you were converted into an organic replicator and held prisoner for some time, you then digitally ascended and floated around Pegasus looked for a way to escape only to return to Atlantis rebuild human form asuran bodies and then floated yourself in space to save Atlantis."

She supposed that after all she had gone through that it was needed, even if she didn't have all of those memories the toll it may have taken was a risk and one that had to be rubber stamped with approval before she could return to Atlantis.

"When do I start?" she said with keen determination, the quicker it was done the quicker she was back on the city that was her home.

"Later today." Jack said smiling, "I first need to catch you up on everything that has happened on Earth since you were trapped with the Replictators. You have three months short of six years and that is a lot of lost time, many things on Earth have changed and you will want to know about them all, we can also update you on the Stargate Program and the Expedition."

"Five years?" she said and it startled her "has it really been that long?"

Jack gave her a look of understanding, and checked his report, "according to your file you were declared MIA in February 2007, It is now October 2012, you have missed a great deal but on the bright side you have not aged a day!" he said but he sobered "This is one of the reasons for the mandatory head shrinking, Daniel lost only a year you have lost a lot more."

"Its fine General." Elizabeth said weakly, she wanted to see her mother as soon as possible, she would be alone now and a deep sense of sadness came over her "Shall we begin?"

"Sure." Jack said

**Pegasus Galaxy – New Athos**

New Athos had once been the site of the new home of the Athosians after they had decided to leave Atlantis many years before, they returned to New Athos nearly five years ago after they had been rescued by the Lanteans from Michael but had once more left the planet three years ago to live on Lantea.

As traders, farmers and hunters the Athosians often revisited this world in order to hunt and collect particular herbs and plants, a group of twenty had gone to the planet and they had dialled Atlantis, they were being attacked by unknown assailants and requested help.

Chuck and Amelia had quickly updated Councillor Sheppard who had mobilised AR Team 1. Lt. Colonel Lorne, Rodney McKay, Doctor Becket, Teyla and five other members of Atlantis security forces had been sent to New Athos to help.

Rodney had passed on the research John had asked him to do on the spear to Radek and Frederick Hartman, he didn't think it the best use of his time.

As they had stepped through the gate they had detected no sign of anyone, not even the Athosian who had called for help. Lorne had the team spread out and comb the surround forest for any sign of them or the unknown assailants.

Lorne was uneasy, something was not right here and he just couldn't identify what it was, after an hour the team had arrived at the site of the old village and still found no sign of Athosian party or any type of assailants or weapons fire.

"Fan out." Lorne told them, "We will do one last sweep on foot and then return with a Jumper."

He kept his P90 raised while he walked and the life sign detector showed no one in his vicinity and he was about to turn back when the unmistakable sound of a Wraith Dart pierced the skies.

"Darts!" he said into the radio "take cover!"

He ran through the trees looking for any type of cover he could find, he knew the culling beams could sweep through the trees and beam him into the device but he had to keep out of the way and he prayed everyone else did the same.

As he jumped down into a creek he looked up and saw there were five darts circling overhead and they were not using their culling beams or weapons which was unusual, he stayed where he was for ten minutes not daring to make radio contact as the Wraith had begun to track AR Teams with it and then they left.

"This is Lorne, is everyone alright?" he said into the radio as he climbed out of the creek and began to walk back towards the direction of the gate.

Everyone began to check back in at once, Teyla was fine but was worried about her people of who there was no sign and Becket asked if anyone was injured but there was one voice that was not heard over the chatter.

"Doctor McKay?" Lorne said stopping on the sport and he received only static back, "Rodney Report."

Again there was silence.

"Has anyone got a visual on the Doctor?" Lorne demanded.

"He was near me sir when the Darts came." First Lieutenant Gavin said, "I will see if I can find him."

"Rodney if you have knocked yourself out again or something equally as clumsy I will clout you about the head myself." Carson said his Scottish brusque more pronounced in his worry.

The team checked the entire surrounding forest and they stumbled on his pack and no trace of him.

Lorne swore under his breath, "We need to get back to Atlantis, I think McKay has been culled."

**Pegasus Galaxy – M49-P25 **

This small planet was in the outer-rim of the Pegasus galaxy, the opposite side to the path to Earth and an area that had hardly been touched by the Atlantis Expedition. The planet had once been on the gate network but it had long been buried.

It was a red world, gaseous and covered in laver from twenty large active volcanoes, it barely had an atmosphere and that very toxic if any who came to this world unprotected, even the Wraith with their heightened healing abilities would not survive this world.

So it was the perfect place for the Vanir, their exoskeletons protected them from the hostile environment and it had at one time been a world they extracted raw resources from the molten rock, but a team of the Vanir had been on the planet for a year looking for something.

According to an old story they had uncovered on a human world, two ancient brothers who were great inventors worked to create an artefact, but the younger brother moved onto their next path and became immortal and out of reach. The elder was left alone and in his isolation and with the threat of the war he corrupted the artefact he and his brother created and wanted to cast down all of the immortals to force them to end the war and bestow immortality to him.

When the Vanir heard this story they understood its underlying message and looked into the origins and found another part of the legend on another world, a story of an Ancestor had been hunted his brethren for holding a power that then believed to be unthinkable.

The Vanir had spent many years looking into the story, as they believed at the heart of the story was an Ancient Lantean technology, one they could use to fix their issues but they had never found it. Until recently going through a log they had taken from Janus's secret outpost found reference to a note about this particular world and how Janus believed his fellow Lantean had hidden something here.

For months they had been combing the planet for any sign of a structure under the molten lava and rock and finally they had found it. A bubble of protection had been found deep in a pool of lava and within it they detected the structure and from the sophisticated shielding that would be required only the Lanteans could have built the structure.

"Have you found an entrance?" Kvasir asked stepping out of his ship "You know that it is still possible for the Lanteans to find us or even the Wraith."

"Not yet." Vanlade reported from where he was working.

"Do you know how it has remained intact all of these years?" Kvasir asked looking at the readings, "I cannot see any trace of the Lantean Potentia."

"I hypothesise that this structure has been drawing on the geothermal energy of this planet for thousands of years and it is what causes the over active volcanic activity." Kvasir looking up from his work his face not seen due to his helmet but he sounded irritated by the questions, "It has powered the shield and protected whatever is down there."

"Well in is an Ancient structure." Vanlade pointed out "We might need a set of rings, they might be a set down there."

"Unlikely." Kvasir refuted, "I believe there is a way down, one that is much subtler I just need to find it."

"Do you think we have found the locations of Castors Vault?"

"We will not know until we get under the shield and into the structure, but so far it looks promising." Kvasir replied "If this is Castors Vault then we will soon have Odr to rebuild our race, if we find the spear then ascended will have no choice but to help us."

**Higher plane**

The Higher plane was mostly a place of solace and tranquillity, a place where the problems of the mortal plane did not impact the ascended beings that resided there, but a division had been sparked by the humans of Earth many years before.

Since the day they discovered their gate and become to explore and began to discover their legacy as the children of the Ancients and began to take the place of their ancient forbearers, and some had wanted to interact with Earth, help guide and shape them, to teach them.

But that would be a breach of the highest laws of the Ascended, they were not to interfere with the lower plane in at shape or form. There were breaches, after so many millennia there had been numerous breaches, but mostly major majority had said it was not their place to interfere or they would become like the Ori.

When the Ori had been a threat to the humans of the Milky Way the eldest Ancients who had ascended had allowed for Morgan to try and guide the humans of Earth to Merlin and the Sangreal but she had been caught by them and punished, but they still allowed the device to be found and created to be used against the Ori, for they were a rising threat to all that they created.

Many had not liked the device being constructed as it was a threat to them, but they had trusted SG1 and Earth to only use it against the Ori and their faith had been rewarded. But now there was a new threat and one that caused a paradigm schism across the ascended.

The Spear was part of a weapon, and device that could affect the Higher Plane.

Janus and Ganos Lal had been running for a long time, the others were not happy with all of their interference but so far they managed to keep just beyond them, helped by other Ascended who agreed with their actions.

Having been made aware of the dangers in the Pegasus Galaxy, they had both managed to secretly enter the densely populated section of the High Plane where the Ancient Ascended gathered in large numbers and there was uproar, none trusted the Vanir and the spear was something many feared.

"If I remember correctly Janus, did you not research this device?" Ganos asked as they watched attentively, their presence so far undetected as it was masked for the time being but it would not last long.

"No." Janus admitted, he had heard the take of Castor and his secret device but it was an old legend with no evidence that it ever existed. Castor and his brother had been Lantean scientists, one ascended and the other did not, but eventually the young brother returned to fight in the war and they both died. He had tried to find any evidence of the device as it intrigued him but all references to the brothers and the devices were almost non-existent. "I think The High Council of the time destroyed all records of the brothers work, whatever it was must have been dangerous and I would imagine never sanctioned by the council."

"Do you think it is true what it can do?" she asked sounding very concerned.

"Perhaps." Janus said with his mischievous smile, he still loved science and discovery even if it was dangerous, "If it does what the Vanir believe this will have far reaching consequences, and judging by how many are reacting, especially the eldest of us I think this is a very probably threat to our being."

Ganos looked worried but didn't reply, but they both felt an elder presence join them.

"The threat is real" Said the newcomer, "But there are those who are trying to prevent the spear from being used. When I returned Dr Weir to the Lower Plane I had previously warned her, it will be in her subconscious even now, guiding her to the threat and hopefully prevent this from occurring."

"You did the right thing." Ganos said with gratitude, "Dr Weir has a kind heart and her time was not yet over. I know she has been found and slowly her memories return, I just hope she will act on your warning."

"Dr Weir is not the only one who has been warned." Janus said mysteriously.

"What do you mean Janus?" Ganos asked and she glared at him "What have you done?"

"I have done nothing Ganos." He said he used his small smile that he used to the Lantean Council many times, it was a sure sign that he knew much more than he said and most often it was something that had been forbidden. "John Sheppard is also being communicated with."

"That is not possible." Ganos frowned, "he is watched very closely like all on Atlantis and Earth."

Janus shrugged and didn't elaborate, and they sensed a shift in the energy of the higher plane.

"You should leave young ones." Odr said, "The others have detected something and will investigate."

Morgan nodded and transformed into a white energy and left the higher plane.

"Any wise worse for me?" Janus asked cheekily,

"You would not listen even if I did." Odr replied in a bored voice.

As Janus went to leave he stopped and looked at the ancient Asgard, "You have never considered descending to help them, do you mind if I ask why?"

"They are my people and I have watched them for an eternity, but it is not my place to help them now, you have helped the Asgard already had the Vanir not split over an action I found totally abhorrent they would share in this discovery." Odr explained "my time on the mortal plane ended when the Altera has just peaked in the Milky Way before the plague, I am among the oldest of us and you cannot imagine the things I have learnt in all this time, I could never return due to that knowledge, I would be a god by all definition and that is not a classification I would like."

Janus frowned but accepted Odr's reasoning, he didn't understand it but then he often struggled with the deeper meanings of the elders of the ascended, they often spoke in ways that did not actually mean what they said, their time as ascended had changed them and they no longer had very linear thoughts and conversations.

Returning to the mortal plane Janus descended into space and made for the closet Stargate and then travelled to the world of Chaya, she was his brethren an ascended being imprisoned and punished but she was a kind woman and he needed a place to hide but still be close to Atlantis.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis **

McKay had not been found, Lt Colonel Lorne had reported him missing and five jumpers had been sent through the gate to find him and the missing Athosians but they had found no trace of them and in the space above the planet they discovered the residual radiation of a Hive ship.

The High Council was very worried, if the Wraith, especially the Trinity Queens had caught him and realised who he was then Atlantis was in real trouble. The Fleet had been sent out in search for the Trinity Fleet but they had seemingly disappeared once more.

They reached out to all of their off-world allies, which included the Genii who had become more agreeable in recent years. Since their attempt at salvaging Borealis and the apprehension of a significant number of their army they had back away from confrontation with Atlantis.

Ladon Radim had agreed to reach out to his network which the Lantean council believed stretched even to the various Wraith Worshiping communities, looking for any sign of Doctor McKay, in exchange he wanted access to the Athos Free Market.

Teyla and Kanaan had agreed to this stipulation as both wanted their missing people found as well as finding McKay.

For a week they had found no sign of Rodney, and there was a sour mood across Atlantis, everyone felt the loss of the cranky and neurotic Canadian scientist. The atmosphere was made worse when two ships of the Travellers had elected to leave Lantea and join their fellow roaming brethren, and Larrin was trying to keep their alliance together but she was struggling after the recent loss of one of their ships and the damage of another two.

John was in a foul mood made worse by his dreams of the Ancient Lantean scientist and the spear device he was creating. Whatever the device was it was alluding the research team and with each day that passed John worried more that the Vanir had it in their possession and even if he didn't know what it did it was a grave concern.

"Unscheduled Off-world Activation!" Chuck called loudly "Councillor Sheppard we are receiving an incoming message on a known Wraith Frequency Band."

John stepped over to his console and saw to his surprise Todd broadcasting himself to them.

"Todd." He said in greeting "We didn't expect to hear from you any time soon, according to my intel you have secluded yourself in the outer rim of Pegasus."

Todd bared his teeth at him "I have been consolidating my fleet Sheppard, the Trinity Queens have been hunting me for many years and I have lost many of Wraith I have gather to my alliance since you freed me."

"What do you want." John said bluntly "You do not call unless you want something."

Todd smirked, "Are you sure there is not something you want from me Sheppard?" he asked and he had a look about him that made Johns blood boil.

"Was it you!" he accused "Did you take Rodney."

"I had no involvement in the abduction of Doctor McKay." Todd admitted "I have just heard about it from some of our worshipers who are still loyal to my alliance."

"Where is he?" John demanded.

Todd laughed "You know that nothing comes free Sheppard, there is always a price."

"What do you want." He said through gritted teeth "Why have they taken him?"

"One of my Clevermen is within the ranks of the Trinity Fleet, he has reported they have been working on a retrovirus similar to one you created and I have since perfected." Todd said in a sly tone "It would seem the Trinity Queens have adapted your research and that of the one you call Michael and reversed it."

"Meaning what?" John said narrowing his eyes and then he felt like he had been punched in the gut "They are turning him into a Wraith!"

"I do not know if their plan will work." Todd contended "But it is quite ingenious, Your Doctor McKay knows everything about Atlantis, and your operations, if they convert him correctly they will gain everything they need to attack you."

John exchanged a look with Ronon and Larrin who were now watching their exchange.

"You will help us retrieve him?" John asked him.

"Yes." Todd agreed and he smiled "But first you will help me gather more to my alliance."

John wondered at that, how could he and Atlantis help him with such a thing. "How?"

"I need your Queen." He said simply "She is the queen of my hive and the leader of my alliance, I lead it in her name, but in order to gather more of the other wraith who have not joined the Trinity I need a Queen."

"Teyla?" John said his brows rising "You want Teyla to help you and pose as your Queen again."

"Yes." Todd said "She has proven she did it when she took control of Primary's hives when she posed as a queen all of those years ago. She was an old queen and her daughter leads the Trinity now."

"I cannot ask her to do this I…." John began to say but he was cut off.

"You do not need to ask." Teyla said sounding very firm from behind him "I will do this and we will get Rodney and my people back."

"Good." Todd said smirking evilly "I will send a dart to collect you from New Athos in one day."

The transmission ended with his last word.

"Teyla you cannot do this!" John said harshly, "The last time you almost didn't make it out alive."

"I have the Gift John." She said her chin raised in defiance, "it has only grown stronger since I have embraced it, if Todd can teach me more I can rally more wraith to his cause which is more on our side when this conflict escalated to a full battle."

He could see the steely will in her eyes, she wasn't going to back down. "Go and see Beckett and Keller, they can both work to make sure your disguise is perfect. Kanaan will remain in your stead to represent your people."

"You must not tell him!" Teyla warned "Do not tell him what I have done, he will not understand."

John nodded, "I won't but make sure you warn Todd that if this backfires in any way then I will hold him to my original promise, all bets are off. I will destroy him and his alliance if you come to any harm."

Teyla smiled at his protectiveness "I will be fine, Todd needs me." She quickly walked away towards the transporter and she was out of earshot or she would have heard Johns last words.

"I am more worried about when he doesn't."

**o-0-o**

"Are you sure about this?" Jenifer said shaking her head, taking a bracing sip of her coffee trying to hide the shiver that came over her at the thought of turning Teyla into a Wraith again. She was alone today as Carson was in Janus Port doing house visits and when Teyla had come in she thought that Teyla would want an Aspirin or a maybe sutures for a sparing injury.

"It is the only way." Teyla said seriously, "I can only pose as a queen if I look like one. Todd needs me to persuade other queens to follow me rather that the Trinity Queens. Queens only speak to Queens as an equal, they will never speak to me as a human with the gift."

Jennifer nodded dully, she wouldn't argue the point as she saw that Teyla would not be deterred "I can't say that I am thrilled by carry out this procedure again, I do not even know if there are long term effects…"

"When you first carried out the procedure you said there were no long-term effects. You said it was both safe and reversible" Teyla pointed out starting to sound frustrated, "Has this now changed?"

"No." Jennifer said "But at the time I thought that it would be a one-time thing, I never imagined you would need to go under my knife for such a thing again."

"Will you not help me Doctor?" Teyla asked sternly "Rodney is missing, I have a chance to find him and I thought you would be happy to help."

Jennifer felt like she had been slapped, and colour rose in her cheeks, she loved Rodney and would do anything to help him but she was concerned for Teyla's health even though she didn't think there was any harm in the procedure.

Patching up a soldier who would then heal and go back out in the field into harm's way until their wounds and injuries became so bad that she was forced to send them back to Earth, this procedure gave her doubts and wondered if her the oath she had sworn was being broken being in Pegasus.

"Alright then." She said finally, "Come with me and we shall begin the process of turning you into a Wraith."

A number of minutes later Teyla was lying on the table of the private procedure room, a bag of what looked like water was dripping down a long tube into Teyla's arm, or at least it looked like water, it was no different than Vodka. Looks could be very deceiving and this anaesthetic was a new product they had discovered in Pegasus.

It was hard for Jenifer to pick up the sharp hypodermic needle, she was thinking of Rodney and all the things the Trinity Queens could be doing to him at this moment, and she closed her eyes and forced herself to concentrate.

The first time she had done the procedure she had done it under the guidance of Todd who had made the whole change possible, but she had made meticulous notes and lots of photos from that time and she hoped that it would be enough.

She started with the facial surgery, it was an area that Jenifer tried to make perfect as it was the area that would be on show to any other Wraith. As she made the first incision she briefly wished that she had paid more attention on her Plastics Rotation during her Residency, but she found the hairline scars from the first procedure and she reopened them to insert the implants that changed Teyla's eyebrows.

The two sensor pits on either side of the nose were trickier, she had to cut open the skin and place a silicone and skin-like adhesive over it, it took two hours to get them in place and there had been a lot of swearing under her mask but eventually she finished and they looked just like the first time.

Unlike the first time Teyla did not need a false feeding organ to create the illusion that she was a Wraith, as she was posing as Todd's queen she could have a false scar left on the hand where the organ would be on the other Wraith in the Alliance who had undergone the hybrid conversion process.

Once this was done she had to surgically lengthen Teyla's hands with implants and add changed the knuckle structure and even added the talons of a Wraith queen, while the adhesive for these changes set she returned to Teyla's face and vegan the process of altering her teeth.

When her teeth were done the hard part was over, she had the drugs already on Atlantis they she had created with Todd's help previously, first she used one that was designed to not only darken and engorge her veins under her skin, but it also made her veins look black under her skin.

The second of the drugs was set up as a direct IV into her arm to spread around her whole body, bonding to the melanin in her skin and under a particular harmless radiation it changed her skin hue to a greenish colour, but she cut it shorter than she had previously to compensate for the new physiology of Hybrids.

And finally the last IV was used to push through a drug that sent Teyla's oil glands into overdrive making the skin look slick and slightly reptilian. Jenifer stepped back from the table and looked at her work and sighed, the surgery was done all that remained was purely cosmetic.

She stepped out of her gown and began to add the hair extensions into Teyla's long brown hair, and she coloured her talons and added the special contact lenses that changed her eyes to match a Queen.

With her work done she stopped the anaesthetic and waited for Teyla to come round, but the wait took too long so he sat doing some of her paper work while she waited, as she did the changes to Teyla were completed and after an hour she came to and she opened her eyes which glowed yellow.

A shiver rose over Jenifer out of instinct, and it was noticed by Teyla who smirked a little and it made her resemblance to a Queen more pronounced.

"I do not look that bad do I?" Teyla said through scratchy throat and she ran her teeth across her new teeth.

Despite herself and the uncertainty of what she had done she chuckled "I think the correct answer is yes, but you are the queen again."

"Good." Teyla said and she closed her eyes once more and went back to sleep.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! I want to know what you think!

So Dr Weir is on Earth but will return to Atlantis very soon!

The Vanir have found the planet where the Spear is located, and the Ascended are very worried.

Rodney has been abducted by the Trinity Queens and Todd and Teyla must unite to try and save him!

I have no idea what the next chapter will bring! but we are also very, very close to returning to the Destiny Expedition, not sure If I will have that next chapter or the one after!

Images of the various ships can be found on my Twitter Account,

Just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and scroll through the posts and you will find images of the Daedalus-Class, Ares-Class and the new _Prometheus-Class_

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	38. Chapter 38

Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Thirty Eight**

**Steelflower**

Uncharted Galaxy – Edge of the Galactic Void - Destiny

Many billions of light years away from Earth having travelled an unimaginable distances and a great number of galaxies the truly ancient vessel was still travelling through the mysterious blue aurora of faster than light travel and it was about to reach its destination.

Five months prior Destiny had rewritten her navigational program that her human crew had imputed to as they fled the prior galaxy, the artificial intelligence altered the programming to maximise the efficiency of her power consumption and to keep her crew alive, now as she passed over the edge of the void and into the first star system in her new galaxy her self-written programing initiated.

To save power Destiny dropped out of FTL at the very edge of the system, once out of FTL the sublight engines powered up for a mere thirty seconds to generate momentum to propel Destiny into the star system and eventually would lead her to the distant star where she could replenish her reserves.

The calculations and simulations Destiny had run had been correct, she had saved her crew from expiry and managed to get them to their destination. Soon they would wake and but it would take time for her to reach the star, Destiny utilised a lower power mode where all systems apart from the stasis halls and sensors were offline and she drifted through space conserving the power Destiny had calculated was necessary to refuel and keep the crew alive.

Destiny was content that her directive had been met, her mission was still ongoing and her crew alive. The Destiny Expedition was not over, Earth may be just beyond reach but soon contact would resume and perhaps Destiny may receive help from her own place of origin.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Olympiad Shipyards **

The shipyards on the ice world were well hidden under the ice and rock of the planet, it was chosen as it was a barren world and had no life forms other than the aquatic animals that lived in closer to the planets equator where the waters were no frozen.

Within the shipyard the construction berths were continually working on building the Terran Fleet, but that was not the only thing under construction, within a secluded part of the shipyard another project was underway. A number of years ago a space station had sat within the galactic void between Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies with the purpose of reducing the power costs of connecting Atlantis and Earth and to speed up travel between them both.

But the Midway Station had been destroyed after an incursion of the Wraith had threatened the security of Earth, but the idea still had merit and with the new design and configuration proposed by Samantha Carter construction had begun on a new station with the additional security features it was believed secure and the construction was green lit.

_Pegasus Gateway_ construction had begun not long after Carter had returned from the Black Eye Galaxy, she had turned over her design to HWC who had sent into to Olympiad for immediate construction, and the Institute Shipbuilding teams in conjunction with the staff provided by the UTAF had taken the plan and begun construction without pause.

"Are you pleased?" Said a male voice from behind Jack O'Neill who was standing on a balcony overlooking the construction berths below.

Jack had gated over from the SGC that morning for his six-month inspection of the shipyard and to check on the expansion HWC was paying for, but he had been happy to see the next ships were coming along nicely.

"Why is it you are always here when I am?" Jack said not looking away from the ships below and the space station which was now completed but undergoing a last series of checks before it was deployed to the void.

The Institute director stood next to him and leaned on the railing and chuckled "Well these Shipyards are owned by the Institute and I have a vested interest in making sure that you are happy with them."

Jack looked at the man out of the corner of his eye, he wondered just who this odd man could be, he always seemed to know what was happening before anyone else.

Some of the suspicious and paranoid members of the US governments had tasked the NSA, CIA and FBI to pool together all of their resources and try and uncover just what the Institute was and more importantly who Daniel Greyson was.

Word of this investigation had become common knowledge to many, and Jack was privy to many nations investigations into the mysterious man and so far the only thing they had discovered was that the man was a ghost.

He was born in Scotland in the United Kingdom to an unnamed father and Katherine Greyson according to his birth certificate, but the clinic he was born in was destroyed in fire and its records destroyed.

The next record of the man's existence was when he was a toddler and Charlotte Greyson took him back from the foster system and reclaimed him, after this date there was a long trail of documented evidence of his schooling and where he lived.

Daniel had graduated from Cambridge University but after then the records of him begin to disappear once again and became sporadic and this pattern continued to the current date. Charlotte Greyson was another ghost perhaps even more than her son, a paper trail was found but it was barely existent, more fires and mishaps causing gaps in her history which was very suspicious and beyond coincidence.

Jack had been told by an intelligence agent at a security council meeting that many believed Greyson killed his mother in order to take control of the Institute, but Jack was not too sure of that, the man was many things but a parent killer was not something he could see him as.

"Charlotte Greyson." Jack said still watching the man for any sign of a reaction, "You know many people think you killed her to take her position."

An expression of shock and deep hurt crossed Daniels face before his jaw set and an edge entered his tone, "My mother was the strongest woman I have ever met, I did not kill her and I am not even sure I could have even had I wanted to."

Jack looked at him surprised by his words, it was the first time he had heard him speak of his mother. "She was your predecessor?"

Daniel nodded sombrely, "She passed the reigns to me four years ago, after twenty two years of rising the Institute from its ashes and allowing it to reborn again. I have never met someone so steadfast in her conviction that Institute was needed in the future, that one day it would need to be ready for the threats from outside our star system. I am what I am today only because of her, so to say I killed her is a great insult to me."

Jack wondered at that, Charlotte had died according to the official records of cancer in 2008 and to talk about her pained him but he seemed to deeply care for her and even though he didn't know much about Greyson he was sure he did not kill his mother.

"The Pegasus Gateway will be ready by tomorrow." Greyson said changing the subject and his tone changed to business-like once again, "You know if it was possible I would think about incorporating a super gate into the station, it would be a good way for moving ships to Pegasus and back, and as the station is mobile and shielded it could be a secure route."

It was not a bad idea Jack thought to himself, and the Supergate was even now sitting over a black hole inactive and it was the only connection to the very far away Celestis Galaxy and the place of origin of the Human Race.

"Our understanding of the Gates is nowhere near the level of its creators, or even the Nox and Asgard." Jack pointed out "We understand a great deal about how it works and its operations but construction of the gates is currently beyond us."

Greyson smiled ruefully, "Pity, but I understand. Has there never been any sign of a big gate factory? After all of these years I have often wondered where the Ancient Altera built them."

"No." Jack answered and he frowned, it was a good question, they had never found any Ancient construction locations, only the outposts and ruins of cities. But it begged the question, why had they not? "Did you hear the latest news and who we have discovered?"

Greyson looked at him and smirked but nodded, "It is quite remarkable, I never thought to actually see an Asgard after they killed themselves during the Ori war. I wonder if it means they are all alive or just a small number of them?"

Jack had wondered that very same thing when Sam had told him when she returned from the mission, they ahead spent the night reminiscing over their various encounters and missions involving the Asgard and their friend Thor.

"I don't know but this is one of many things I will be sure to ask them." Jack told him seriously, if the Asgard where alive he would want a very good explanation as to why they had left them on their own for so long.

"Come General." Greyson said moving away from the balcony and pointing towards the space station, "We should inspect the station, I should also tell you that the glass pavilion you ordered to be built has also begun construction."

Jack was happy with that news, the meeting of the advanced races would be a great and unprecedented event in the Milky Way and he hoped to would be the beginning of a new alliance but he wasn't sure what the outcome would be.

"Have you decided who you will assign to the Space Station?" Greyson asked with interest.

"Captain Carters design is very automated and it can be run with a minimum of two crew members."

Jack smirked to himself as they entered the elevator that took them to the lowest levels, he knew the two members of the Gate Program who would be perfect for manning the station and he would be happy to have them out of the way.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Hyperspace – Wraith Cruiser**

As Todd had promised a Dart had been left on New Athos, and Teyla had used her gift to interface her mind with the Dart and she flew it up and into space where a lone Cruiser was lying in wait.

She piloted the Dart aboard unsteadily, her skills at flying the Dart was limited to what she could manage between the connection between her and the live systems, Darts were more reliant of manual piloting.

Once she was docked she was met by Todd, who had escorted her to her private room aboard the empty cruiser and he had begun to teach her how to use her gift more easily and to expand on it.

A Wraith Queen was expected to not only speak with her tongue but command her underlings with telepathy and maintain control of her hive and cruisers by sheer mental dominance.

Teyla was learning slowly, hindered by revulsion to what she was doing but under Todd's very firm and unflinching tutorage five days later she could now open her mind easily and she could maintain the mental connection with him and he had named her.

*Teyla* Todd said into her mind as he walked into her quarters *We are about to drop out of hyperspace*

"What are we…"

*Speak with your mind!* Todd all but shouted into her mind.

*You do not command your Queen* Teyla command forcing herself into his mind and the anger was tangible through the connection, *I do as I will not as you command. I am the Queen!*

The mental connection stopped Todd in his tracks and he bowed to his queen submitting to her dominance despite the fact he knew she was no Wraith Queen, but her metal presence was that of a queen.

*What will we do now?* Teyla asked, *Do any in your Alliance know of my true origins?*

*No my Queen* Todd said using his mind to show her images of the battles the alliance had partook in and the destruction of a number of their ships.

*So all of those that knew have been killed by the Trinity Queens* Teyla said and a spike of anger rose from her, *They will all die*

*As you say my Queen* Todd said amused and his amusement must have translated across the mental connection as Teyla rounded on him.

*What is it that I say that makes you amused Guide* She demanded, her mind was tentatively reaching out and began to smother him.

*You are beginning to sound like a true Queen* he commented *You need more training Teyla but you will pass for a Queen*

*Guide?* Teyla said and she paused and frowned, *That is your name?*

"Yes" he replied using his mouth, "All Wraith have a name, a name is what defines their role under the Queen to which they serve."

"So guide, it means you are a leader?" Teyla asked wondering if she understood the nature of the name correctly, something was lost when just naming him with her tongue, but touching his mind she could sense the truth of the name.

"Yes." Todd said smirking, "You begin to understand, to my kind I am one who leads us to victory and advances, I was alive during the war of the Ancients and I led many of our victories against them."

Teyla regarded him she felt her revulsion well up in her at the thought of the number of humans he would have fed on in the past, she knew that Guide could no longer feed as he was a hybrid but he still had killed a great many.

"Your Consort also shares my name." Guide said as he commanded the ship to drop out of hyperspace as they reached their coordinates.

"My consort?" Teyla asked not understanding the term and since he spoke with his tongue she couldn't hear the meaning in his thoughts.

"Your mate?" Guide said frowning at her confused, "You are with John Sheppard are you not?"

"No! John is my friend, but no more exists between us both, he is in love with another."

"My mistake." Guide said bowing in submission once more, "But he is called Guide by many Wraith."

"You call him that as he leads the Atlantis Expedition and the Lantean Society?" Teyla asked with interest, she supposed like Guide in front of her the name was fitting.

*Not only because he leads them, but he had led the great assaults against my kin, he has been battling us since he arrived in this galaxy.* Guide said and he shared his thoughts and memories, she saw John through his eyes and saw that the Wraith respected his prowess and some even feared him, but was she was surprised was the level of fondness Guide felt for John.

"He intrigues me." Guide said shrugging as he felt her unspoken question "He is most unusual among your kind."

"John is unique." Teyla said suddenly she the hive mind of the assembled Wraith and they were reaching out to her and it was overwhelming. "Guide there are too many!" she called out as her head began to ache.

"Focus!" He demanded, "Reach out to them all, force them to cower before your mind and the contact will diminish."

Teyla took a deep breath and used all of her teaching in meditation to still her mind and then she opened herself up to the Alliance embracing them all and she could feel them doing the same and then she changed the open embrace into a metal vice grip and she grappled with each Wraith in the collective who suddenly cowered in submission.

"Very Good." Todd said chuckling "Queen Steelflower."

"That is the name you give me?" She asked wondering at where the name came from.

"You are a beautiful Queen and your mind is like a flower in bloom and welcoming." Todd explained, "But your will and dominance is as unflinching as steel, the name is fitting."

Teyla nodded and accepted the name, she was Queen Steelflower of the Hybrid Wraith, a name she did not feel suited them but until they came up with a new name it would remain. While technically Guide led the Alliance he did not because many believed he act under her direction, here she was powerful and protected so long as they did not detect her origins.

"What now?" Steelflower said looking at Guide expectantly, "You know I am only doing this to get Rodney."

"That I know." Guide responded, "We are here to gather a crew and then we will set out to meet with queen Waterlight, she has fled the Trinity Queens twice and we need her to join the collective."

**Ida Galaxy – Idavoll – Asgard Home World. **

In the Norse Tongue and to the people of Nordic belief the name Idavol was given to location of the meeting places of the gods, but its origins came from Asgard, the birthplace of the Asgard race and it was the name given to its capital city before the planet was destroyed by an approaching black hole.

Now the name was used once more for the new homeworld of the newly rejuvenated Asgard, they had found a suitable planet to begin to rebuild their civilisation on, it was a world that had once been one of their outposts but had never been developed further because of the Replicators but now it was to be their capital world.

Situated over this planet was _Ragnarok_ the lead ship of the Asgard Fleet under the command of Supreme Commander Thor and he was having his ship scan the planet and began the process of planning the new city, the ships computers had the design in its databanks and was now plotting where everything would be and the best possible location to begin construction.

While _Ragnarok_ was not a science vessel it was still equipped well enough to carry out this task, the scouting of Ida and the Milky Way had revealed that the Ori were now destroyed and the Goa'uld system lords were no longer a threat.

But they had found that a group that called themselves the Lucian Alliance were gathering strength and conquering worlds and subjugating them. The Protected Planets Treaty was no longer abided by and a number of their former protected worlds had fallen.

This fact had upset Thor greatly as he had hoped that Earth would have upheld the treaty, but as they scouted more worlds they discovered that Earth was in fact slowly removing the Alliance from these worlds, but their fleet was small and the Alliance had numerous vessels and more numbers.

Earth was unaware of their presence within the Milky Way, the scout vessels cloaked to all but advanced scanners and Earth was too far aware to detect them, but Fil'nir had been surprised when scouting Cimmeria when the Odyssey was in the system, the Asgard Core on the ship connected immediately with the Scout.

Fil'nir had contacted Thor as he fled to hyperspace to warn him that he might have been discovered, but as the ship had been on the other side of the planet the Odyssey had not seen his ship. Thor wondered if it was a coincidence that Odyssey had been there but that wonder had not lasted long as Fil'nir reported that Odyssey was following him through hyperspace.

The Scout was faster than the Earth ship but with her Core and zpm was able to stay within tracking range.

But the true surprise reported to Thor was when the scout had been forced to drop out of hyperspace due to an emergency protocol of safety has forced the ship into normal space and when Fil'nir has probed the space he had found himself confronted by the _Ares_ and _Odyssey_ together.

The newer class of Earth vessel was much more advanced than the smaller Odyssey and it had addressed the ship, this communication was relayed to Thor and he had been surprised but happy to hear none other than Samantha Carter who he knew from his interactions with Earth.

He had relayed his own communication through the Scout, he was sure Samantha would recognise his voice but he knew that the High Council would allow for them to re-establish contact with Earth soon.

Thor moved a stone on a console in front of him and the _Ragnarok_ descended into the planet's atmosphere and on its belly five large crystals lit up and drew power from the powerful ion generators at its core and from it matter stream technology and beaming technology began construction on the central building of the new Asgard Home world.

It would take a number of days to be ready but Thor was patient, the remaining Asgard would soon return from the Valhalla station and once they were on their way he would be able to speak to Earth.

Thor received a long range transmission on an older Asgard frequency, "Supreme Commander Thor?"

"Odin?" Thor replied opening the audio channel, "I have begun the process of creating the Citadel, when can I expect the science vessels to arrive?"

"In time." Odin replied curtly "We received your report that the people of Earth had detected one of your scout ships."

"They identified Fil'nirs scout ship and managed to ambush it within hyperspace." Thor said "I was forced to intervene and give them a message."

"A message you were not authorised to give." Odin pointed out, "It was agreed that only when the High Council agreed would we contact the people of Earth."

"They contacted us." Thor said, "Your orders no longer applied and I acted as was logical to the situation."

"That remains to be seen." Odin said coldly.

Thor knew Odin had never been fond of Humans as he has sympathised with the Vanir in the old civil war but had never been proven to support them, but he believed the humans would give them leads to help the genetic degradation.

"So when the science vessels arrive?" Thor asked once more.

"Within a week." Odin promised, "They will leave today but it will take them time to cross the Cascade."

"Once the main tower of the citadel is complete I will travel to Earth." Thor said.

"That is not your decision." Odin tried to interject.

"No but since they have discovered our presence they will need explanations." Thor told him, "We lied to them, we lied to the Fifth race and the children of the Ancients, we owe them more."

"I will not argue with you Supreme Commander but you should know you will answer the entire High Council when we arrive." Odin promised sounding stern, "Do as you will but you will be held accountable."

"Understood" Thor said smirking, he was not worried the Council was mostly on his side but since they had been discovered he had broken no direct commands so he would not be in any trouble.

**Milky Way Galaxy – M35-NC5**

This small planet was the home to a population of 20,000, they were at the pre industrial age of their development but they had an advanced level of knowledge in botany and herbal medicines some of which were knew to Earth and they were researching the properties of the off world species and relied on trade to acquire them as all current attempts at growing the odd plants had failed.

Trading with the world was done by the diligent team of SG11, a team of scientists, archaeologists and an expert in anthropology led by a single major. Never were they sent on hostile missions, instead they were used for trade missions or to broker agreements and research.

So when they were sent to the planet by General Landry it was never expected to be anything but a simple trade arrangement.

When they stepped through the gate they arrived on an open area of fields with four large cobbled paths leading in the directions of the compass points to the four main settlements, but they walked to the South towards the capital settlement where they did their trade.

Unusually there was no activity near the gate, normally the elected chief or his first minister would meet them, so they made their way to the settlement and when they arrived on the edge what there found was silence, no one was outside and it made the team stop.

"Put down the supplied." The Major said tensely, his eyes darting around looking for the threat but he found none, "We should go to the longhouse, the chief should be there."

The team followed his order and they proceeded with their weapons raised and made their way to the chief's longhouse, it was made of a blackish clay brick and thatch roofing, but unlike the other buildings this one was two stories.

Once inside they found a sight that shocked the team, they checked two other houses and found the same thing.

"We need to get back to the gate." The Major said.

"Do you know what did this?" Marcus the team's archaeologists asked.

The Major exchanged a look with the two scientists who were on the team, and the look they each gave was fearful and the Major understood it, he may not understand but he knew the sign and what it could mean.

"I have a guess." He told them, "I want you to fan out and look for any of the townsman."

The Major hurried to the gate and when he arrived he dialled Earth and waiting for the connection to establish and once it was done he pressed his radio "This is Major Castle."

"Go ahead." Said the on duty sergeant,

"I need to report a Code Green level 6" the Major said using the SGC reporting situation code.

"Please wait." The Sergeant said.

Castle was not surprised, he knew that this would be directed straight to General Landry and he was proven right after three minutes when the General spoke over the radio.

"Major, what is the situation?" Landry said bluntly.

"I suspect a biological weapon has been used Sir." Castle said "The capital population is dead, all of them dead houses, there is no signs of a struggle."

"Anything else?"

"Sir the bodies." The major said "They are dried out and look like they are made of dust."

"I will have a hazmat team sent within the hour." Landry said "You know you and your team will not be allowed back until you a cleared, whatever has happened to that world you may have been infected."

"Understood Sir." He replied, he had known it from the moment he saw the first body in the Longhouse, but on his walk back he had seen a horse and some farm animals and the birds in the sky "I have never seen a weapon that could do this sort of thing, it seems to have affected only the humans as there are animals here still that are unaffected."

**Pegasus Galaxy - Deep Space**

In a dead spot out among the stars with no planet in range was a space station, it once been a meeting place for the many Wraith Queens during the Lantean war but now it was the headquarters of the Trinity Queens.

Within a secluded section of the station was a set of room set aside of medical procedures and biological experiments, it was seldom used but in the last few weeks it seen a lot of use.

On the central bed was a wraith, he was unconscious but otherwise looked like any other wraith, but his hair was short.

"Is the transition complete?" Secondary asked walking into the lab and speaking to her head cleverman.

"Yes my queen." Brightstar reported bowing low, "his body has reached ninety percent conversion rate, but it is not stable."

*Explain! * She hissed with her mind, that was not acceptable to her.

"He will need constant doses of the serum to prevent the process from reversing." Brightstar said prostrating himself due to the mental assault he came under.

*Unacceptable.* She said and she gazed at the wraith on the table *His name if Quicksilver, when he wakes he is to start work on the shield generators*

*Yes my Queen." Brightstar vowed, *What of the Lanteans?*

"We are hidden from them." she told him smirking, "We are beyond their reach and we will not linger."

"Queen Primary wanted him to maximise the hyperdrive systems." Brightstar interjected "She wants to get to Earth."

*We need the shield technology first, it will make our ships more formidable and the Lanteans will be powerless.* Secondary told him sternly *Now wake him and make sure he does not remember his origins, if he does you will suffer my displeasure*

She reached out to his mind and struck him hard and he doubled over in pain and was forced to his knees.

*That was just a sample Brightstar, do not fail in your task* She warned and she left her Cleverman to wake up the Wraith, Rodney McKay would help them with many things in time, soon they would ferret out the secrets of Atlantis and find its weaknesses.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis **

The loss of Rodney hurt the people on Atlantis, they had not received any news from the allies as to his location but Todd had told them that the wraith planned to convert him into a wraith and that was a great cause of concern.

With Rodney missing the role of leading the Atlantis Science Division was placed on the shoulders of Dr Zelenka, it was a job he had never thought he would have and he was still settling into it but he kept telling everyone that he was only the temporary head of the division.

John had ordered a large number of their researched to dig through the Atlantis Database for any references to the spear or something that the Ascended Ancients could fear or anything that could help the Vanir. So far they had found nothing.

One of the researchers thought that perhaps it was like the device SG1 used to defeat the Ori but they had not found any reference to it in the database, and they wondered if it was protected or had been deleted for they were certain it should be within the database.

The search for the device was not over, the science team had used an Ancient Lantean probe which had been used to share memories to be recorded as official record, but they used it to extract a copy of his dream of the Ancient scientists creating the spear.

Using these images, they began to comb through the database search for a match to the faces, there were many thousands of faces in the database but they had been able to filter it somewhat but it would take time.

"Councillor Sheppard." Zelenka said walking into his office.

"What is it Radek?" John asked "Have you found the device or the Ancients."

"No." Zelenka said "We have a new problem."

John groaned loudly "What?" couldn't the galaxy give him a break.

"Rodney." Zelenka said quickly "He may be able to breach our security."

John frowned but remembered that Zelenka had told him his team would be removing all of Rodney's access codes from the city systems, he stood up from his desk and walked over to a set of drawers in the corner to find Rodney's system access report.

"I thought you said you would remove his access, you said you had done just that." John accused and his headache pounded at him, his vision blurred for a moment but he was still in his office but was surrounded by Ancients, and he saw the two scientists who created the spear being shouted at by another.

"John!" Radek said and he grabbed him as he staggered "Are you alright?"

"Fine" John snapped, "just have a killer headache. Now what is the problem."

"You know that I have been trying to make sure that the Trinity Wraith could not access our systems if they access the information Rodney has in his head." Zelenka said quickly and John nodded, he did know that, "I have found a bigger problem."

John was not surprised in the slightest, nothing was ever easy on Atlantis.

"I was looking at the code in the shield controls and I found a backdoor into the program." Zelenka reported, "I have seen it enough to recognise that it is Rodney's work, I looked in other systems and I have found multiple backdoors into systems but I believe there are more that I cannot find."

Trying to take a calming breath John tried to think through the pain in his head, "So what do we do?" he asked not able to think of a solution.

"I will need help." Zelenka said.

John had a sinking feeling, he had an idea why Zelenka looked so uncomfortable but he tried to think of a way out of it, "I could ask the SGC to contact Captain Carter, she has returned to her ship but they might be able to spare her for a few days."

"Yes she would be helpful." Zelenka said and from his face John knew what he was going to say, "But while I need someone with Rodney's level of computer skills I also need someone who understands how Rodney thinks, something I try not to do for my benefit of my health and blood pressure."

"So what?" John asked his patience gone "Who do you need?"

"Jeannie Miller." Zelenka said simply "She is the only one who could help us."

"Rodney's sister." John sighed, "I hoped you wouldn't say that."

"She has worked with him on his projects in the past and she above anyone will have the best insight into the mind of Rodney McKay. If anyone can figure out where Rodney's backdoors are and how to successfully close them I believe it is her."

Pinching the bridge of his nose John agreed, he had been putting off notifying the SGC of the situation but he knew Jeannie had a right to know about her brother but he had hoped by waiting they would be able to find him and not have to worry her.

"I will speak with General Landry." John promised, "hopefully she will be here in the next few days."

"I will leave it in your hands." Zelenka said before he hurried out of the office.

John sat back down at his desk and he was assaulted by another vision of ancient days but this time he could hear what was being said.

"_Castor!" the older man who was shouting at the two scientists said "Where is the spear you and your brother created?" _

"_Aurelus we destroyed the device." The other brother said "We travelled to Volcanis looking only to find a place that could become a new outpost, we believed that the properties of the planet would allow for shield generation planet wide but discovered it was too unstable." _

"_Irrelevant!" Aurelus exclaimed "You are to turn all of your research over to the Council, and will desist with your experiments, this war is escalating and we need every able body and mind fighting the Wraith." _

"Volcanis." John said aloud and he was back in his office in the present, "Now that is a clue!"

He ran out of his office towards Operations, though his thoughts drifted to the origin of his visions, they were odd and all related to the spear. He thought that maybe the Ascended being who helped Elizabeth was sending him the message.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! I want to know what you think!

Next time of Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race.

\- Atlantis races to the planet of Volcanis to try and stop the Vanir.

\- Earth discovers that truth behind the biological weapon use on M35-NC5

Images of the various ships can be found on my Twitter Account,

Just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and scroll through the posts and you will find images of the Daedalus-Class, Ares-Class and the new _Prometheus-Class_

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	39. Chapter 39

Stargate: Ascension of The Fifth Race

**Chapter Thirty Nine**

**Broken **

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth - Stargate Command**

The SGC was alive with activity, the discovery of the genocide of M35-NC5 had been a shock to the SGC and the higher command at HWC, but as the science teams travelled to the world in full hazmat suit they eventually discovered that whatever biological contagion had killed the people was not airborne, or at least it wasn't anymore.

They had been unable to identify exactly what had caused the people of the world to become dried out husks, their bodies had become like dust. The scientists had deduced that whatever had done this was targeted directly at the native human populace as they had found no animals that had faced the same fate.

General Landry had sent out every one of the SG Teams to canvass other worlds and to reach out to the Tok'ra to see if they knew of anything like this happening on other worlds and to their horror the Tok'ra had advised that they were aware of similar anomalies and said they would be sending an envoy to Earth.

That morning Doctor Keller had arrived from Atlantis in Pegasus to escort Jeannie Miller to the ancient city to help with the recent McKay problem. Mrs Miller was on route having needed to settle her daughter for the day and arrange for her care while she left as her husband was away on business.

While Doctor Keller waited she had been notified of the SGC's recent discovery and had provided her own expertise from her time developing the wraith retrovirus in the field of bio-contaminants, whatever the weapon was it was undetectable to them currents and left no traces on the remains of the dead.

"Are you nervous Doctor?" Landry asked seeing her moving foot to foot.

"No." She said in a high pitched voice "Well maybe a little, they are technically an alien parasite walking in a human host. It reminds me too much of my worst nightmare from a film I watched when I was younger."

"Do not call them that" He warned, "They may be of the same species as the Goa'uld but they have an entirely difference philosophy and have been one of our allies since the early days of the Stargate program."

"I know." Jenifer nodded "I have worked with Wraith, and they eat humans, I just get nervous meeting aliens."

Landry smiled, he could appreciate that but he also saw the concern written on her face, she was here to escort Mrs Miller to help lock out her brother from the city systems, but she was also romantically involved with him and she wanted to get back to Atlantis as soon as possible.

"You know Dr McKay…" Landry went to say but stopped when the gate lit up and an incoming wormhole began to connect.

The wormhole formed and immediately after the shield activated protecting the facility from uninvited guests, but it was deactivated by the gate operators above having received a IDC and the wormhole rippled as a male Tok'ra stepped through the event horizon.

As part of the overhaul of the Gateroom the new security features had been installed, the shield activated on the gate once more, and also covered the doors to prevent further access to the facility while a series of lights ran over the visitor.

The sensors scanned all inbound travellers for weapons and other such threats, it also scanned the biological make up of visitors to identify species and also scanned for pathogens and biological weapons, broadcasting implants and was equipped with Transphase Eradication Rod technology to detected cloaked visitors.

Having detected no threat, the shields deactivated just as the gate did, the process took no more than twenty seconds. The computer identified the visitor as having a symbiote within their body and flagged it as a threat but the gate room operator ignored it knowing that the visitor was a Tok'ra.

"General Landry." Cordesh said inclining his head in greeting and speaking with the typically deep voice of his race "Your facility has changed since the last time I was here."

"We have had to update our security." Landry acknowledged "Welcome back to Earth once again Ambassador. This is Dr Jenifer Keller the chief of Medicine on Atlantis in the Pegasus Galaxy."

Cordesh regarded her with some surprise "It is known among the Tok'ra that the Tau'ri had discovered the ancients fabled city and had travelled to another galaxy, I admit I was sceptical about such claims."

"Well, Atlantis is real alright." She replied uncomfortably not knowing how to act around the alien in front of her, "It is quite the sight."

"I can only imagine." Cordesh said indifferently "We have never had the opportunity to see the city, you have come far quickly, but some of my people feel you rush forward to rashly and you will only end up finding trouble."

"It certainly has its surprises." Jenifer said smiling uneasily.

The General knew she was thinking about the original expedition waking the Wraith on the first off-world mission. He decided it was time to intervene and led them both up to the briefing room where a small selection of refreshments was set out, but they were ignored by the occupants and they took a seat.

"I will be brief." Cordesh said not waiting for a moment as he sat down and looked at them, "for I am aware that your time here Dr Keller is limited. Over the last year the Tok'ra have noticed nine human's worlds have become abandoned, we have not investigated for fear of corrupting their cultures like the Goa'uld have done when the removed them from Earth."

"Nine worlds?" Landry asked shocked but he narrowed his eyes on the ambassador, "Why have we only just heard of this?"

"General the relations between our two people have been tense since only a few months after the extraction ceremony we invited SG1 to attend." Cordesh pointed out noticing his accusation, "It was due to your IOA that we broke off our former alliance as it was made clear that our mere existence was abhorrent to your people."

Landry sat silent, he wasn't wrong and despite Jacks best efforts things were still frost between them, and it was known to Earth that it would take time for their relationship to get back on good terms.

"So this makes ten." Jenifer frowned and she opened up the report file in front of her, "Do you have any data on these worlds? Was it the same weapon?"

"We have only what is in that file, we did not investigate previously." Cordesh admitted, "When we received the inquiry from the SGC we made the connection between these worlds and sent out a number of operatives to investigate. Like the world you are aware of these nine worlds are devoid of all human life but animal populations are intact, as are the settlements themselves."

"So no sign of a fight or that they left?" Landry sighed wondering if ten human worlds could have been stripped of human life without anyone noticing.

"Three of the worlds were once densely populated as it was once a slave world for the Jaffa and System Lords but has changed hands many times, there has been looting so it is difficult to be certain."

"Thank you for bringing this to our attention ambassador." Landry said truthfully, "We will use the address you have provided and send out our teams to investigate this further, Dr Keller it seems that this was a waste of your time I apologise I thought the Tok'ra might have more information on the weapon."

"It is fine." Jenifer said brightly, "I will go and see if I can help Dr Lam while I wait for Jeannie to arrive, the moment she gets here we will leave for Atlantis, it was a pleasure to meet you ambassador."

Landry nodded at her and she began to retreat but stopped at the door.

"Do you know the count?" she asked the ambassador turning back.

"I do not understand." He said confused.

"What was the known populations of those worlds?" she asked.

The Ambassador blinked understanding what she was truly asking and he exchanged a look with the Landry which was reciprocated, it was going to be high.

"In total I would estimate maybe three hundred thousand." He said shrugging, "We had only limited information about these worlds and it was outdated, it may have been much higher."

"So Three hundred and twenty thousand lives have been destroyed." She said sadly and shook her head and a single tear came down her check "If you need my collaboration on the research into this pathogen or weapon please contact Atlantis."

"Certainly Doctor." Landry promised.

Once she was gone the Ambassador and General regarded each other equally.

"This was not the only reason you came here was it." Landry said bluntly.

"No, I have information about the Lucian Alliance." Cordesh said "And I have a request of from the council for we have become aware of a piece of technology in your possession.

Intrigued by this Landry nodded and they began to discuss the more direct threat to Earth, but he wondered what the Tok'ra council could want from them.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Lantea – Atlantis **

Jeannie Miller arrived with Dr Keller directly from Earth, they were met by John and Dr Zelenka on arrival and John gave her his apologies but promised they were doing everything that they could to get Rodney back.

She didn't really listen and merely demanded to be shown to Rodney's lab so that she could begin her work. Radek showed her to McKay's lab and she immediately logged on to a spare terminal and began to search through hundreds of the systems and data streams to weed out her brother's backdoors and coding.

In the best part of a day she had found more backdoors and other access points than the entire science division combined, she knew her brother well and easily recognised his coding and knew just how he thought and how what he would want to access.

Dr Zelenka had been monitoring her progress all day and had been very impressed by how quickly she was getting through the systems and she was determined barely speaking to anyone unless it was to get a better understanding of how a particular system worked, but she had not eaten or taken a break.

Worried for her Radek went up to operations to find Councillor Sheppard only to realise he was in the briefing room, poking his head through the open doors he saw he was in a meeting with the ship captains of the Travellers.

It was a tense conversation and Radek believed it was very possible that the Travellers were discussing their leaving Atlantis.

"I have instructed our engineers to begin the removal of our consoles and sensor dishes from your ships." John said "As you know technology exchange was not agreed between us both."

"That is understood Councillor." Larrin interceded before one of the captains could speak "Our decision to leave has not yet been made but it is being discussed and I believed we should discuss this."

"While I am disappointed that the Travellers wish to leave the Lantean Society but I have been aware of this wish for some time." John said "In the future you may indeed separate yourselves from us here but it is my hope that we will remain allies."

"Of course." Larrin promised, "Many of my people feel Janus Port is their home, many of them are old or children we have no wish to unsettle them."

"In that case I would suggest that one of your ships is sent out into Pegasus to find a suitable world for you to colonise." John said firmly "A settlement takes time to construct."

John looked up and saw Radek on the threshold and nodded to him to remain.

"I am sure there is much that you will now need to discuss with my input or participation something you seem to no longer wish to have." He added and stood up and left them all sitting there with Larrin giving him an annoyed look as he walked past once out of the briefing room the doors closed on their own, "Damn Travellers." he cursed to himself "What is it Radek?"

"Jeannie has been able to close more of McKay's backdoors than all of my department had been able to since he was abducted." He quickly reported, "But I am worried about her she has not taken a break since she arrived, she should rest."

John gave a small sympathetic look but nodded, "I will speak to her Radek, do not worry about her."

"Thank you." Radek said and he began to leave the operation centre but John held him back.

"Have you been able to find Volcanis?" he asked, "You have had two days to locate this world."

Radek paused, truthfully he was not sure "maybe."

"Maybe?" John demanded "Why am I only just hearing of this?"

"I have not been able to definitively identify the world you called Volcanis Councillor." Radek said quickly, "I found no record of that world in the database, but I did find three volcanic worlds that could match the description you gave."

"Can you use our long range sensors to see if you can identify any Vanir ships?" John asked trying to think of any way they could narrow down the possibilities, their fleet was spread very thin.

Atlantis now only had four ships, _Daedalus_, _Tria_, _Helios_ and the _Pontos_ were all that the stood between the Trinity and the Atlantis. Now that the travellers were so divided they would not risk their ships in open battles especially since the destruction of their ships in recent encounters.

"No, they do not reach that far." Radek sadly "We could ask the Travellers to take a look? So long as you do not ask them to engage they might?"

"No." John said rubbing the stubble on his cheeks and silently cursed to himself for forgetting to shave, it was unprofessional for a man of his rank. "I cannot ask them for anything at the moment, try and get your team to think of a way of narrowing down the possibilities without the need of ships."

"Yes Councillor." Radek said and he began to leave but stopped "If the Travellers are no longer going to be a part of our society we will need to Aurora ships more than ever."

"I know, one of Rodney projects was trying to build a mark II subspace capacitor from Ancient technology components for the Aurora-class to remove the need for the zpm." John reminded him "He never finished his work, and Carter was also working on Asgard ion generators too."

Radek frowned an idea occurring to him and he dashed away and to the tower that he had slowly began to turn into the Atlantis Science Division headquarters, it was on the very edge of the east pier but was only threw towers away from the Main Control Tower of Atlantis.

Once in the tower he stopped at many of the floors to give out instructions or to check on the many projects that were happening in conjunction with each other. His idea to centralise the Science Division had been made to make it more accessible for all and to get more labs open and that tower had been vacant.

He connected to the repair station and brought up the status of Repair Berth Four where the project codenamed Avalon was being built. He blocked and fiddled with his glasses as he looked at the data in front of him and began to look through the schematics that Samantha Carter had brought with her of technologies to be shipped to Atlantis to be installed.

"By to mohlo fungovat" he said to himself as he began to piece together another Carter-McKay technology breakthrough, but even while he worked on this he had one of his screens monitoring the surveillance feed from McKay's laboratory where Jeannie was still working.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Earth – United States **

Elizabeth was sitting in the garden of her mother drinking for a cup of rich tea and was contently reading from a tablet that had been given to her by General Landry, it contained hundreds of reports of events she had missed since she had gone missing. It focused mainly on the Gate Program and all things related to it but also some Earth news and history.

"Beth?" her mother said walking up behind her sounding unsure of herself.

"Mum?" she replied surprised not realising her mum had come back from the market, but she saw suddenly that her mother wasn't alone, a man who could be no older than twenty-five was standing behind her with a far off look, his blonde hair and glazed over eyes made her feel a kind of protectiveness over him that she couldn't explain, "Who is that?"

"I was at the market when he approached me, he said he needed to find Dr Elizabeth Weir." Her mother said and she led him forward as he seemed unable to do so himself "He was so forthright when he said he needed you but after he began to act like this.

Smiling at the young man Elizabeth stepped forward to greet him "Hello, I am Dr Elizabeth Weir. I am sorry but who are you?"

"I dreamt of you." The man said with a small smile, "I like you, you were nice."

Elizabeth exchanged a look with her mother, she looked very concerned but as she was not read into the secret of the gate program she couldn't tell her anything.

"Would you like a drink?" Elizabeth asked.

The man considered her words before eventually replying "Yes please."

Her mother realised Elizabeth wanted to be alone with him and looked reluctant to leave but at the reassuring look from her daughter she walked off towards the kitchen.

"So why are you here?" Elizabeth asked as she helped settle him into a seat "And how did you find me?" it worried her that a young man who was obviously not in his right mind could find her when she technically had been dead to the world.

"I was told." The man said sweetly "I saw you in my dream."

"Do you always dream of me?" Elizabeth asked wondering if he was just crazy, even though he had never met him.

"No." he said and coked his head a little regarding her curiously "do you have any paper?"

Elizabeth quickly slipped back into the house and got some paper and a pencil, and but took the drink her mother had made and brought it back out to him. He eagerly began to draw.

"So why did you come?" she probed again.

"I miss Sam." He replied "She hasn't visited me in a long time."

"Sam?" she questioned wondering why the boy was talking about someone else now, maybe he did this often.

"She often visited me." He shrugged and he sounded sad "she used to help me draw."

"Who was she?" Elizabeth asked but she was starting to have a feeling that she knew who this man was even if the memory was out of her reach.

"My friend." He replied simply.

"What is your name?" she asked again.

"Orlin." He said and he smiled sweetly and got on with his drawing while Elizabeth stood up and pulled out her phone and called the SGC.

"This is Doctor Elizabeth Weir for General Landry." She said to the officer, "Tell him that it is important."

"One moment please Doctor." She replied to her.

"Doctor?" Landry said sounding surprise "What is it?"

"General I have an unexpected visitor." She said, "he found my mother in the market and insisted he come with her to meet me."

"Who was it?" Landry said sounding slightly alarmed.

"He says his name is Orlin." Elizabeth replied and she cursed her patchy memory as she just couldn't remember the significance, "I think I know who he is."

"You should." Landry told her after a moment, "He was once an ascended ancient, he was the one who returned to our plain to help us with the Ori threat. He got very attached to the then Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter but the ordeal strained his mind and his mind was fractured because of his ascended knowledge."

"Why would he look for me General?" she asked, looking at him as he continued to draw and she admitted to herself that he seemed very good at it "Have I met him?"

"Not to my knowledge Doctor." Landry said and she heard him issues orders to someone on the other end of the phone, "I am getting someone to go and get him and return him to his long term care facility, if I could as that you keep him from leaving?"

"Certainly, he is no trouble." She told him and the call ended.

For two more hours the young man sat contently on his own at a table with only the paper and pencil she had given him, he had only once disturbed her again when he asked for more pens or pencil's.

Her mother took pity on him and handed him a pack of colouring pencils from her great niece's things that had been left in the house since she had looked after the small girl and he had happily taken them and continued to draw.

Elizabeth felt guilty not telling her mother just where she had been and how it was possible that she wasn't dead. The story she had told her was that she had been a captured and became a prisoner of war. It wasn't the truth but it also wasn't an entire lie.

She knew that her mother knew she wasn't telling her the full truth but she didn't push and only asked that when it was possible she sit her down and tell her everything.

Eventually two air force officers arrived in a sedan to take Orlin away and he didn't complain, he packed up the pencils and followed them without fuss, as they went to put him in the car he stopped.

"For you Doctor Weir." He said in an unusually clear voice, "It will help."

Startled by the strength of his words after he had been so docile and childlike since she had met him she took the offered drawing and then he was placed in the back seat and the air force officers got into the car and they left quickly.

Elizabeth looked down at the drawing and was startled by what she saw.

"Atlantis." She whispered looking at it in awe. Orlin had drawn a very detailed and accurate rendering of the ancient city sitting on an ocean and another was a drawing of a star system, which contained many stars and the various moons, and other planets.

"Mum." She said suddenly "I need to return to Colorado." She looked at the pictures and she knew instinctually that they were important and she need to get to Atlantis as soon as possible.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Lucian Alliance Controlled space – UTS Sun Tzu**

Captain Cháng'ān sat in his control chair watching the swirling vortex of hyperspace while his crew were rushing around getting their systems back up, they had been carry out a scout of a Lucian Alliance controlled planet when they had suddenly been surrounded by twenty ships, all Class-Three Ha'tak vessels and two Apophis-Class Motherships.

They had managed to severely damage four ships but at such large numbers they had begun to take damage due to the new cobalt homing mines they were using and had been surrounded by what was believed to be over a thousand of them which had converged on _Sun Tzu_ all at once and had caused considerable strain on the shields and systems had overloaded.

Cháng'ān was no fool, he knew it was futile to remain and fight such a large number so he ordered the ship to make a jump to hyperspace and they had managed to make the jump but had taken two hits to the propulsion systems which seemed to after not effected their jump.

They had been sent to scout the world by Homeworld Command as it was according to the Tok'ra a world controlled by the Second in command of the entire Alliance, but they had not been able to cloak themselves quick enough after the left hyperspace and the mines had locked onto their signature even while cloaked.

Suddenly the ship rocked violently.

"What was that!" Cháng'ān demanded, and was shocked when the ship lurched again and dropped out of hyperspace. "Why have we dropped out?"

"The computer is detecting multiple faults with the propulsion drives captain." An officer reported, and they began to rapid conversation with the engine bay teams "Sir those mines have destroyed the control relays to the engines, we have no sublight engines and the hyperdrive has control module also took a hit."

"Sir should I activate the distress beacon?"

"No!" Cháng'ān shouted before the communications officer could activate it, "We are still within the Alliance territory, we cannot broadcast our position. Get a team down to engineering to get repairs started, a team will need to EVA too but we need to make a start."

"Sir as a precaution we could cloak?" said his first officer, "We still have weapons and shields."

"Do it, but when they EVA it will need to be deactivated."

**Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth**

Farrow-Marshall Aeronautics was a company was a varied history, it was a defence contractor and specialised in its development of many fighter-craft but in recent years had been instrumental in the development of systems for the Earth F302 and BC304's.

It had been infiltrated by the Trust and once by Ba'al when he had infiltrated Earth to hide and had become its public CEO, these days the contracts with the US government had reduced and the company was in dire financial trouble.

The company was currently in undergoing a hostile takeover as the board of directors tried to block it but they were slowly being paid off or involved in mysterious accidents, the company that was acquiring Farrow-Marshal was none other than Lockheed Martin the global American company with interests across Earth.

The man who was pulling the strings was known only as Escher, his first name was not known to any on the board and he was represented in meetings by a proxy, no one knew what he looked like. Three years prior he had mysteriously purchased shares in the company and had constantly purchased and acquired more becoming one of two major shareholders.

"I have news." Said a woman who sauntered into Escher's office

"What?" Escher said stopping her coming closed were a mere raised finger.

"Carl Strom's trial is to begin in two days." She told him happily "If we are to continue our ongoing plan we still have need of him."

"Where will his trial be?" Escher asked

"According to our source in O'Neill offices it will be in Washington, he is an American after all." She told him "We could use this to our advantage, they will need to transport him."

"Find out the details, I doubt that they will use a ship or beaming technology." Escher said thinking aloud, "I would think they will transport him via cargo plane from that prison and then from the airport it will be a motor car."

"The window will be small." She agreed, "but it does give us some options."

"When the day comes for us to no longer need him I may very well kill him myself." Escher told her "He spurred my requests for an alliance and turned to those savage Alliance members, for that he will pay."

"What shall we do now?" she asked

"I will handle Strom's extraction." Escher told her "For now I want to finish our acquisition of Farrow-Marshall, I need their factories and it will help cover our developing projects and open up even more doors to us."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Deep Space – Ice field **

Sitting in the middle of a very dense ice field were three hives and six cruisers, this was the size of the domain of the young Wraith Queen Waterlight, it had once been much larger but due to the Trinity Queens and the Hoffam plague it had been cut in half in just under a year.

Now she was branded a traitor and was without any allies so had been surprised when she received word that Queen Steelflower wanted to meet her, her fleet and forces were well known to all Wraith.

"We are about to drop out of hyperspace." Guide said quietly to Steelflower from where she was resting.

"Good." Steelflower said "My patience for this trip is wearing thin guide. The sooner this is done the sooner we will get Dr McKay back."

"As you say." Guide replied duly, "You need to be careful here."

"Do not presume to think that I do not know that." Steelflower snapped haughtily "Or are you just going to slit her throat like you did the last queen we met."

"Not this time, it will not be necessary." Guide said "At least not currently, she is young and needs someone to follow, she should follow us with some gentle persuasion."

Steelflower glared at him, she knew that gentle persuasion meant imposing her own will and mind on the other Wraith Queen and not backing down.

"Has it occurred to you that she may betray us?" She questioned.

"I doubt she will." Guide shook his head "but if she tries I am sure you will be able to handle the situation."

Steelflower nodded and waited as her cruiser dropped out of hyperspace and began to manoeuvre through the ice field, the wraith navigator easily moving between the large chunks of ice without taking damage.

Soon they got their first look at Waterlights fleet and it was small but undamaged.

"We have received instructions on docking." Said Starfinder, the ships navigator, "They ask that you use a shuttle."

"Very Well." Steelflower said glaring at the view screen, "Guide you have your tracking device installed?"

"Yes my Queen." He replied "This meeting shall be under the marks of truth, she will not betray those marks."

"Starfinder!" Steelflower said ignoring Guide, "Should the young queen try to flee you are to cripple her propulsion immediately."

"As you say my Queen." He said bowing as she subconsciously reached out to him with her mind.

"Guide you will pilot the shuttle." She said and she walked out before he could even answer.

Silently he wondered if having her impersonate a queen was such a good idea as Steelflower was as much as Queen as any Queen he had met. And he briefly wondered at her lineage, but was forced to hurry as he felt Steelflowers impatience through the collective.

Milky Way Galaxy – Sol System – Earth – Stargate Command

Dr Elizabeth Weir had not wasted any time travelling from her mothers house and crossing state lines to get back to Colorado, made near instantaneous thanks to the intergalactic battle-cruiser in orbit and its beaming technology.

Once she arrived just outside the mountain complex she made her way through the facility into its lowest levels under NORAD. She was met by Dr Lee who had been sent by General Landry to see what exactly Orlin had given her.

She had wondered at the Generals absence and the Dr had told her that they had discovered that it was believed that human worlds were being decimated by a highly sophisticated biological weapon one the like had never been seen, and the General was in the middle of an important meeting about it.

"You say Orlin drew these?" Lee said staring at the digital copy he had made on a large projected screen, "He came all the way to your mothers house just to give them to you?"

"Yes." Elizabeth nodded and she again studied the images carefully as she had the whole time since the young boy had been taken away. "He in an Ancient, they must mean something."

"Well from what General Carter explained he was an ascended Ancient who retook human form, and retained his ascended knowledge but to do so he had to take a younger body, the mental taxation of trying to retain that much information, even in an evolved human brain overloaded him and left him no more than a shell of what he once was."

What had been done to him, after he had risked his only metal wellbeing just to help Earth had been punished by the Ascended, She believed they could easily help Orlin but instead chose to make an example of him. They sat up high looking down on them, she wondered if they were not a different type of Ori, they sat and watched and refused to help while their children were suffering, were they any different?

"You know these images are remarkable." Lee said enlarging a section of the drawing showing one of the towers, "The underline image is just like a computer rendered schematic of the city, he drew this very detailed schematic of the city and then created a kind of landscape, it is very odd."

Elizabeth ignored Bill, she knew he liked to waffle and it was easy to block him out when she picked up the second image once more showing space and planets and stars and she noticed something.

"Bill what does this look like to you?" she asked

He turned around having realised she wasn't listening and saw what she was looking at, "A childish rendering of a star system? Or just space in general." He said looking at it critically, it was obviously very different to the detailed drawing of Atlantis.

"No these." Elizabeth prompted and pointed at sections but Bill didn't see it. Taking his keyboard she displayed the drawing on the interactive whiteboard "I recognise this configuration."

She quickly connected the stars and two stick like men were formed by the connecting the dots.

"That is Gemini." Lee said seeing it now, but he looked arround the image again "This is not accurate at all, no other planets are near that constellations, and there are three suns?" he then turned back to the image of Atlantis and began to study the stars in above it. "You know I think these are consolations too."

He drew them out and there were six, six very distinct star patterns and he pulled up a program and compared them against the SGC gate address database and it yielded no results and Lee was stumped.

"Maybe they are not a gate address." He said

"Or they are, but for Pegasus?" Elizabeth said smiling "You have drawn them as they would be represented on a gate from this galaxy, Pegasus is digitised! Six constellations and then with Atlantis as point of Origin creates a gate address! But what has Gemini got to do with anything?"

"Doctors do you have anything?" said the tired voice of General Landry as he stepped in "Sorry I couldn't meet with you Dr Weir but I was tied up in the meeting."

"Its fine General, but I think Orlin might have just given us the location of this device the Vanir are trying to find." Elizabeth said, she knew she probably sounded mad but something was telling her she was right, it was all connected she just needed to work it out.

"You are sure?" he asked dubiously "I know he was once an Ancient but that was before what happened with the Ori."

"General." Elizabeth said firmly "I was sent back, I know that, I know it has something to do with the Vanir and this device they are searching for. John has been dreaming of the…." And she trailed off remembering something.

"Dr?" Landry questioned looking worried

"This device, it was created by two Ancient Lantean brothers." She said quietly "John said so, he dreamt it he only knew they were brothers because they looked alike."

"You mean they were twins?" Lee asked catching her trail of thought and the odd depiction of Gemini.

"Why not?" she said "Even if non identical they could still look alike."

She had to return to Pegasus, the Atlantis database would have the answers they needed.

"I need to get back to Atlantis now." She said, her mind connecting many things suddenly it was like an electrical current was surging through her and she needed to keep it going "It is where I need to be."

"You are not cleared to return…" Landry began to say but at her desperate look he relented quickly "I will dial Atlantis and see if Sheppard will have you back before you are cleared, he will of course but I cannot overrule regulations entirely."

"Thanks you Hank." She smiled and she picked up the drawings and raced off to the nearest phone with an outside line to tell her mum that she would be going away again.


	40. Chapter 40

Stargate: Ascension of The Fifth Race

**Chapter Forty**

**The Chase**

**Pegasus Galaxy – Volca System – Lantean Ship Helios**

Hyperspace.

A dimension all of its own through which advanced technologically equipped races travel through in order to cross vast distances in a straight line and at incredible speeds.

Of all of the races known to Earth to travel through hyperspace none were faster than the Ancient Lantean Aurora-Class ships at Interstellar travel, only the Asgard had achieved faster speeds through Intergalactic variants and Earth had still not found a working Ancient Intergalactic design.

Hyperspace travel was much more efficient than traveling at FTL, as in order to travel at such speeds in normal space a ship must have data on what was ahead for it could still collide with ships, planets and stars which did not exist in hyperspace.

_Helios_ was an Ancient Lantean Aurora-Class and one of a few that was in fact now fully functional as close to the factory built conditions as possible. She was speeding across the Pegasus Galaxy at an alarming speed unmatched by any ship within Pegasus.

Her captain was controlling her with a firm and practiced hand, the captain sat with his eyes closed and his mind connected to every system of _Helios_ watching their progress closely and the ship relished in the connection, it had been too long since a true captain had controlled her with such a level deep connection to her systems.

When the SGC dialled Atlantis to update them on what had happened on Earth and the possible lead Dr Weir had found, John had immediately authorised her to step through that gate even if she had not been cleared. Of course no one on Atlantis saw her as a threat it was only because certain individuals on Earth required certain boxes be ticked before she was returned to a position but John did not care about that.

Once in the city she was met by John and Doctor Cho as Radek was busy elsewhere.

She had brought the drawings with her to show them their significance and at first they had been sceptical but as she explained what she and Dr Lee had found and what significance there was to it they agreed it might be something.

A search in the Atlantis database returned no gate addresses that matched the star constellations Orlin had drawn, but Elizabeth was not to be stopped by any hurdle. Instead she asked Dr Cho to use the star charts to try and pin point the location of each of the constellations and once they had found them determine a single point where each of them could be seen.

It had seemed to be a long shot as it would show many planets but to their surprise it gave only a single star system as being the location from which they could be seen.

The star system was a binary system with numerous gas giants and large asteroid belts but other than that they had no further data on the star system, and the gap within the database was suspicious.

John had started to think that they were on the right track when the lack of detail in the database was found and was already thinking of getting a team assembled when Dr Cho then realise that the second drawing of a star system actually matched this system and right in the middle was a red world that was not in the database.

Annoyed that he had the Science Division working on locating a world within the database that was no longer recorded, probably due to some Ancient deleting the files he had them reassigned to other projects and began to assemble a team to take to this world.

The only capable ship that they could use was the old Aurora-class ship _Helios_, and John requisitioned her for use in this mission and began to assemble a crew. The Travellers were annoyed that John had not picked any of them but it was understood that it was because they chose to leave so they would no longer be involved with Atlantis missions for the time being.

Elizabeth had been sent to the Infirmary to be checked over so that she could go on the mission and Dr Keller had passed her easily, but as Elizabeth walked the familiar corridors of the ancient city she was thinking hard on the significance of Gemini.

She had not mentioned it in front of Dr Cho as she had no idea what it meant but finally growing frustrated at not being able to work it out she went to John who was in the middle of signing off on a supply of drones being taken from Atlantis stores for _Helios_.

He had listened to her and then told her that the two Ancients he saw in his dreams were brothers and that one of them was called Castor she had almost spluttered in shock. Castor was the name of one of the stars that formed a head in Gemini.

It took three hours to get the _Helios_ ready for its mission and its crew assembled on her, and then they had set off as fast as they could. The Vanir had the head start and whatever reason they had for finding whatever the device the Ancients had created, neither John or Elizabeth had a good feeling about it.

The bridge was filled with crew members but they were almost redundant with John in the chair, his prowess using his ATA gene to control the Ancient Lantean technology allowed him to pilot the ship entirely independently.

But a crew increased the efficiency of the operation of the ships many systems, and John allowed the crew to use the consoles and control _Helios_ even though he could take control and bypass them with ease, instead he just watched everything through the link.

A small chime sounded on the bridge signalling they were approaching their coordinates and John opened his eyes just in time to see the hyperspace window open and the ship arrived swiftly into real space.

"Are they here?" Elizabeth asked looking out the window worried, "Have we beaten them here?"

"I am reading four ships, but the system isn't recognising them." Major Samuels reported from his sensor reading display, he was trying to get more information for the Ancient Lantean system but his linguistic skills were poor.

"They are Vanir vessels and they are bearing towards us so I would imagine they detected our arrival." John said as the ship whispered into his mind supplying him with the sensor data directly bypassing the Major.

"Sir shall we open fire?" Asked a young captain eagerly, it was his first assignment to a ship of the Pegasus Defence Fleet.

"No, not yet." John told him firmly, "Power shields and weapons, lets flex our muscles at them."

In the engineering sections of the ship the zpm module lit up brightly as its energy was drawn upon and the contorted orange shields flared briefly over the whole ship. All weapons turrets over the hull activated and began to track the approaching vessels and the Grodin weapon began to cycle power into the buffer ready to open fire at a moment's notice.

"Colonel we have completed the scan of the planet surface, we cannot detect any sign of a bunker, facility or any type of underground complex. The world is ninety percent made up of larva and molten rock." Major Lorne reported having accompanied him as second in command of the ship, "It's blocking the scanners from this range."

Even from there range the red and black swirling world was enormous, and it looked incredibly volatile and non-hospitable.

"We need to get down there" Elizabeth said, she walked over towards John and he saw her tug uncomfortably at the mission uniform she had been made to wear and he smirked to himself. "Can we get passed their ships and to the surface?"

"Take us in." John ordered Lorne who was at the navigation controls, "Unless the Vanir attack us we will destroy their ships, but I want shields active and keep weapons at the ready." The Vanir may have detected the power of _Helios_ but they still continued towards them and their own weapons were powered, "Fire a warning shot, and hail them with a warning, if they continue we will destroy them."

"Yes Sir." The crew said and they immediately followed his orders.

_Helios_ may be old and a relic for the height of the Ancient Lantean-Wraith War. But her age did not overshadow her formidable sight and it seemed the Vanir were hesitant to attack her.

With the Grodin and small number of drones, _Helios_ was unmatched in firepower and the Vanir surely knew that for they had known of the Ancients, even the Asgard back home had known how fearsome the Ancients weaponry was.

"Their weapons are still powered and they have targeted us!" reported the young Captain Marshall, "Your orders."

John stood from the command seat, and looked to Lt. Colonel Lorne expectantly "The ship is your Colonel Lorne, protect us from their ships should they arrive." Whatever happened now was down to Lorne, he was in command of the ship.

"How will you get down there?" Lorne asked standing up as was relieved by another member of the flight crew.

"We will use a Jumper." John said and Lorne took his command seat "Do not leave without us."

"Yes Sir." Lorne said and he placed his hand on the neural link and an uneasy look came over him as he connected "They're trying to get behind us, keep them targeted."

"We need to leave now." John told Elizabeth and he led her through _Helios_ to the Jumper bay where they met Ronon and Frederick and Matthew Hartman.

"Your twins." Elizabeth said looking between them surprised.

"Yes we are." Matthew said smiling, "It is a pleasure to meet you Dr Weir, I have the greatest respect for your work."

She thanked him and got into the cockpit of the Jumper and sat behind John.

"Well you mentioned the Twin constellation and I thought maybe they could help?" John whispered to her, "But they along with myself and Becket have the highest aptitude for the ATA gene, and if they work together they surpass me."

The small team hurriedly settled into the Jumper with the second twin, Frederick taking the co-pilot seat and John powered up the jumper and they sped out of the _Helios_'s Jumper bay one under cloak and headed down towards the planet's surface.

**Unnamed Galaxy – Billions of Light Years From Earth**

Two Earth months had passed for _Destiny_, and in that time she silently been adrift but now the distance between her and her destination was a mere hour away, the large star illuminated her hull and made her size look insignificant in comparison.

_Destiny_ awoke again now that she was closer to her destination and began to initiate certain protocols, a small amount of power was transferred from her depletes reserves to key systems. Life support was activated within a localised area, oxygen flooded into the compartment while the toxic build-up of CO2 was removed and slowly the compartment began to be heated. The lights down the long hallway flicked to life and Des_tiny_ activated the awakening protocols for the crew members she had selected.

Only five members of the crew were to be revived, the simulations _Destiny_ had run had increased the probability of a successful refuel with some of the crew out of stasis managing with minimal life support, the ship had determined the five members of the crew to revive by identifying those members who were crucial to the ongoing mission.

Her creators had built her AI so that it could unravel the mystery of the universe but the neural interface was built so that the AI could learn to understand her crew when they arrived. The Ancient Alterans had never arrived but when the humans from Earth stepped through the gate, _Destiny_ had studied what would become her crew and she had come to know them very well. In a way they became components and systems to her and were an integral part of her ongoing progress, so selecting the five had been simple.

Within the Stasis Hall five pods pulsed slightly and a blue light enveloped them as their occupants were revived from their long sleep. The control panels beside each pod became alive tracking the life signs and vitals of the occupant showing their progress to revival. The blue light receded and the pod doors slid upwards and five people fell from their pods to the floor unconscious.

After twenty minutes the first of the crew began to wake, Colonel Everett Young leader of the Destiny Expedition came to rather unsteadily and began to come to see four of his people lying around him. Taking a deep breath, he managed to crawl over to Lieutenant Tamara Johansen the Expeditions medic.

He began to shake her gently after checking her pulse.

"TJ?" he said quietly looking very concerned.

TJ came too and looked up at him surprised but looked relieved, "Did it work?" she breathed "Did we make it?"

"It looks like it" Young replied smiling tightly secretly relieved she seemed to be fine "Five of us have been revived, but it looks like everyone else is still in their pods, I don't know why."

"_Destiny_ released us because it knows that we are key members of the crew, I also programmed it to do just that." Came the voice of the often irritated Scottish scientist, Doctor Nicholas Rush who held his head and looked to be in pain.

"Why would you do that?" the Colonel asked, looking over at the bodies of the still unconscious Camille Wray and Lieutenant Matthew Scott "what about everyone else?"

"I programmed the ship to revive us first so that we are ready and alert to help them when they are revived." He said getting to his feet only to sway slightly and clutch the wall behind him to prevent himself falling, "They should awake soon, we should have replenished our reserves if we are now awake."

Young looked at him and nodded accepting his explanation"fine, go and check the closest available terminal to find our current situation." He said throwing him a radio after putting its battery pack back inside it.

Rush didn't reply and walked towards the end of the room

"Rush you are to use the closet terminal only. Do not go far as we do not know if we have company." Young ordered loudly.

"Colonel, the ship wouldn't…" Rush began with an annoyed looked but the Colonel interrupted him.

"Not now Rush," he replied sternly, he had barely been awake for five minutes and Rush was already annoying him. He turned away and began to inspect the pods in the area, whilst TJ began to check over Lieutenant Matthew Scott, Military second in command and Camile Wray, IOA official and unofficial leader of the civilian division of the expedition.

"Sir" TJ said after a moment, "they are fine, from what I can tell. I could do further tests back in the infirmary?"

"No, for now we need to make sure this ship is ready to support our crew again" Young said as he took some shaky steps getting used to using his muscles after being in stasis.

"Ok, but I would say that we will need to hydrate and eat something." TJ said, "From what I have read on stasis chambers they do not have adverse long term effects. I may not be a scientist but given how old this ship is, these pods may might not be as reliable as those we have seen on Atlantis or in the Antarctic Outpost, these may actually have adverse effects."

"That's fine. We will need to check our supplies anyway, they were low before we went into stasis and after so long some may have perished, I just hope we can check before they all awake thirsty and hungry." Young said and he clung to the wall for support as his head began to pound with a terrible headache.

"Colonel Young" said Rush walking back into the stasis corridor

"What is it?" Young asked surprised to see him so soon, having half expected him to have gone to the bridge despite his order.

"We have reached the next galaxy but have not yet recharged, from what I can tell we are ten minutes away from entering the corona of the star in this system." Rush said frowning "But I think the AI built into the ship had reactivated, it is the only explanation as to why we are awake now, It has changed the awakening protocols I wrote."

"So we can start to revive everyone?" Camille asked having come too and having heard some of what he had said.

"No" Rush said immediately "I just said that we have not yet recharged our reserves, meaning that this ship is operating on minimal reserves. Even reviving us used up power that I would have rather been used to protect the ship while it recharges."

"So why did the ship awaken us so early Nicholas?" Camille asked uncertainly looking around as if expecting to see the ship disintegrate around them.

"I cannot be sure as I barely have any access to the key systems in here." Rush snapped, "But if the ship did this it might have been accidental."

"I thought you turned off the AI?" Young pointed out remembering Rush had done it after it had played with their minds previously "After all the things it did."

"When the we all entered stasis this ship was running without a crew and was on autopilot, it is entirely possible that the moment we all entered stasis the AI was released from its quarantine to continue to govern the ships ongoing mission." Rush explained, "without us the ship was without any command, so it reset to the AI."

"Will the program revive them after we have our reserves replenished?" Camille asked concerned pushing away TJ as she tried to assess her condition.

"I don't know." Rush said gruffly getting irritated by their questions as he couldn't answer any of them, "We are locked out from all systems access and what I saw was barely enough to determine what I have already told you, that console is now dead."

"Was this part of your program?" Young asked pointedly, he could imagine the Doctor may have tried to revive first in order to get free reign until he had need of them.

"No" Rush said snapped quickly, "this was not what I programmed into it."

"Can you override it with the master code?" Camille asked grasping for anyway out of the situation.

"Not from here," Rush answered but it was clear he was trying to think of a way to do just that "the terminal outside doesn't have the level of access we would need even if it wasn't now dead, _Destiny_ had sealed us in here, with no way out."

The ship began to shake slightly and the five of them looked around with concern.

"We have just entered the atmosphere of the star" Rush said bracing himself along the walls as he and walked out to the console with everyone following him and it lit up once more and he began to read from it. "_Destiny_ is diverting all available power to the shields, the solar collectors have deployed, we are currently in freefall through the corona as we don't have the power to navigate into it."

The main lights in the room and the terminal then shut off; they were left standing in the dark before Scott turned on his torch which took him a few moments in the dark to reassemble with its batteries put back in.

"What is going on?" TJ asked as the ship began to vibrate harder with turbulence, and the air began to feel slightly hotter.

Rush didn't answer and they stood in silence for a tense number of minutes and the ships shaking increased dramatically, but then a deep hum began to emanate from the ship and the shaking began to decrease and then the lights came back on and the terminal activated once more.

The terminal lit once more and Rush dived towards it, and began to tap away at it trying to get information.

"What is happening Rush?" Young demanded.

"_Destiny_ drew away power from this section to reinforce the shield," Rush said reading the Ancient writing quickly, "_Destiny_ needed all that power to protect itself as we fell through the corona, it has collected enough power to jump start navigation and propulsion and our reserves are being refilled, _Destiny_ should now start to power up other systems."

The terminal Rush was using shut itself down once more and they were left in ignorance, not knowing what the ship was doing and for five agonising minutes they stood huddled in front of the dead console.

All they knew was that the ship was still drawing power from the sun as the hum of the collectors could still be heard and the vibrations wracking Destiny receded to normal limits, but they had no idea if the ship would be able to make it back out of the star or the condition of the shields and propulsion systems.

When the terminal came back to life again, a symbol that none of them recognised was displayed and it took a long moment for the systems to appear.

"I think that the ship just initiated a full systems reboot." Rush said sounding very unsure and tried to access the terminal but it was useless they could only read the screen behind the odd symbol, but it was enough for Rush to see what was happening. "Our reserves are now full, or as full as they can be due to the damage but we are still within the star, _Destiny_ is remaining in the star to use the star's raw power to activate all of its systems without drawing on its reserves."

"Enough to dial the gate?" Young asked sounding hopeful.

"What?" Rush said shocked and annoyed and the Colonel repeated himself only for Rush to roll his eyes "No since we have already established that is currently impossible, or have your forgotten what happened last time we tried."

After another fifteen minutes of waiting the ship began to pull out of the star, power had poured into every system the ship had and they were now back online. As the ship was out of the atmosphere of the star, power was diverted into the door controls and access was given back to Rush.

Rush began to pull up key system analysis now that he had access to find out the true status of the ship.

"Life support has come back online across the accessible areas of the ship" he reported "our reserves are up to the forty percent of current reserve limits; sections of the ship have been locked down while the life support systems get to work."

"Has the ship suffered any more damage?" Young asked concerned about their power and the state of the ship outside the stasis hall.

"No, the ships log reports that the ship has not come into contact with any ship or entity since we went into stasis, it has been in FTL since we entered the pods." Rush reported and he pulled up another page and paused "the systems have been strained from the near constant use and I would prefer to do a full diagnostic before we use them extensively again but it has logged…"

"What?" Young asked wondering what had stopped him from speaking and caused the concentrating frown that now had deepened.

Rush continued to work on the terminal but didn't respond and continued to pour through the data very quickly and his concerned looked intensified.

"The Stargate was activated three days after we went into stasis." He said eventually.

"But we were in FTL" Camille said "I didn't think it was possible to dial out in FTL, and to dial in the ship drops out. You said we hadn't left FTL."

"Correct." Rush said unhelpfully and he frowned and moved between them and raced down the hall towards the stasis pod Eli was supposed to have fixed.

It however was open already.

"Where is Eli?" Young asked sounding afraid.

"I do not know." Rush said carefully "but this pod has not been activated or fixed."

"What do you mean fixed?" Scott asked "I thought they all worked."

"No, there was only one that didn't work and Eli volunteered to stay out of stasis for three weeks to fix it or die." Rush said moving back to the terminal and looked back over the log and he found a new program that was initialising.

"He must have worked out a way to stay alive?" Young asked hopefully.

"I believe he might." Rush said quietly.

"How is that possible without the pod?" Young asked

"It means that Mr Wallace might be a genius and but is slightly mad and reckless" Rush said to them but was taking his eyes of the terminal.

"Rush give me a straight answer now!" Young shouted grabbing the scientist who never gave anything unless it suited him and pulled him away from the terminal.

"Eli was not able to fix his pod in the time we gave him, so I believe that he used the Stargate to survive. I would hazard a guess that due to our travelling at FTL the gate momentarily established a connection onto itself before it failed and he will be stored in the buffer as the power was cut off before he could rematerialize." Rush explained pulling himself out of the Colonels grasp.

"I read something similar happening like this in one of the old SG1 reports" Camille said wide eyed, "the Jaffa Teal'c was stored accidently in the buffer if I recall and Colonel Carter was able rematerialize him."

"Yes, Yes, we all know what happened. My concern is that the design of these gates predate those found in the Milky Way. They are neither as robust or as advanced as the gate in the SGC, it is entirely possible that the particular safety protocol that saved Teal'c is not even in our gate." Rush said tersely and it was clear he was very concerned.

There was a beep from the terminal and a red message appeared written in ancient.

"What's does it say?" Young asked unable to read it himself.

"It's says 'dial the _Destiny_, from Eli' Rush said frowning at it with surprise.

There was a further beep from the terminal

"What now!" Young snapped his nerves feeling very raw after the time in stasis.

"_Destiny_ has used the last of the surplus power from our recharging cycle to start the revival process on all of the stasis pods," Rush said running through the data and what was happening in the control systems, "The AI has programmed the pods to revive the crew in three groups, allowing some time to get them settled before the next group revives."

"TJ, Scott stay here and get the crew back on their feet and back to their duties when ready" Young said and he grabbed two radios from the stash they had left out and reattached the batteries, and handed one to TJ "Rush, Camille, get to the bridge and find a planet that we can resupply from."

"What about you?" Camille asked

"I will go to the gate room and dial _Destiny_ to get Eli back." He said and taking a radio and a gun for himself he walked off.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Volcanis – John's Team**

The Atlantis puddle Jumper flew in the lower atmosphere of the planet looking for any sign of an entrance into the hidden facility but so far they had found none. The Vanir had managed to get through by some means but they saw what remained of one of their ships in a river of lava slowly melting away.

"Take us closer." Frederick said, "The heat is effecting the sensor readings, we need to find an entrance."

"There is a build-up of heat on the outer hull." John said, "If I get closer we will lose structural integrity."

"What choice do we have?" Ronon said from behind him.

"Point taken." Johns aid and he guided the Jumper lower and they were skirting the rivers of molten slag below and the heat within the jumper increased.

"There has to be a way in." Elizabeth whispered to herself, "We came all this way."

John heard her and agreed, he tried every Ancient protocol he could think of, he tried hailing and IFF, he even tried to send a signal like the one used when they had found the underwater entrance to the repair station but got no response.

Warning alerts flicked across the HUD as spurts of lava began to rise up from the planet and John was forced to take evasive manoeuvres.

"What the hell happened." John said as he concentrated on not getting them killed by lava plumes.

"Must be a security measure." Frederick said and then he pointed, "What is that!"

Something was rising out of one of the large expanses of lava.

It rose slowly and as it did the lava rose with it but after a moment it ran away and revealed itself to be a shield holding the heated magma back and they saw an antenna rise up and slowly a larger structure also appeared out of the lake.

"That must be the way in!" Matthew said amazed, "To think this place has been active for thousands of years, and still holds back the lava."

The lava that was shooting up at the Jumper increased but thanks to some clever flying they missed the Jumper and John was getting closer to the large structure that had risen, on the side panels began to shift aside revealing a hole within it.

With only one option, John flew towards it and braced as they came towards the shield but it didn't stop them and they passed straight through and entered the structure which seemed to be a docking point.

The sections that had opened then began to close once more and then the Jumper was no longer in Johns control, the floor under it opened and it began to be remotely controlled down until they reached the bottom.

The new room was hexagonal and of obvious Ancient design but it was not as refined as Atlantis, in fact it looked very industrial or old fashioned in comparison, the team looked at each other very unsure of what they were to do next.

"Well we can't just wait here." John shrugged, he tried to radio Lorne on the Helios but was unable to reach them, "We are out of contact with Helios so we have to see what is down here."

They made their way out of the Jumper and into the vault, Matthew took the position of their Doctor McKay as the scientist and began to tinker with a hand held device as they walked.

"I have never seen Ancient Lantean architecture like this." Elizabeth said looking around curiously, "This place must be incredibly old."

"It might not be." Frederick said as they rounded a corner and found a terminal, it was broken but he had a look at it, "I have seen this type of console before."

"Where?" Ronon asked him.

"Well not personally, but I have seen the schematics of similar ones." Frederick said looking at it with interest and he looked under the terminal, "I think the Vanir did this, they tried to tap into some of the control relays under here."

"Incredible." Matthew said nodding as his brother spoke, "You know I think you are right, but why would they?"

This sort of talk went on for two minutes with them both talking to each other but never anything clear or specific, eventually John had enough.

"Hey!" he interjected, "Speak plainly, what do you know?"

"Sheppard, these terminals are of the same technological specification as those found on _Destiny_." Frederick said, "This technology is old, impossibly old and outdated."

"When the Ancient Lanteans fled the Milky Way there were far more advanced and had developed newer technologies, these terminals are from a point thousands of years before even that." Matthew said "It's curious that this Castor and his brother would use such technology."

"_Destiny_?" Elizabeth asked "What is that?"

"Some Ancient ship hundreds of galaxies away." Ronon said simplifying it down, "a team from Earth are stranded on it, we cannot get them and they are looking for an answer to some stupid question."

John and Frederick exchanged a smirk, it was perhaps the simplest explanation to the Destiny Expedition situation, but Matthew looked outraged by its simplicity.

"Something I missed then?" Elizabeth sighed, it would take her a while to really catch up with everything.

John and Ronon then took the lead once more and they walked further down the corridor and found a bulkhead door and the body of a Vanir.

"How did it die?" John asked no one specific, "I don't see any traces of weapons fire."

"I think the suit electrocuted the Vanir inside." Matthew said, "I am not entirely familiar with this technology as it had been adapted by them from Ancient Environmental suits but I am detecting electrical discharge within the suit."

"Malfunction?" Frederick asked his twin, "Or something more sinister?"

Matthew shook his head, he didn't know and they were on the clock.

John reached out to the door control, it unlike the other technology they had so far encountered bore some resemblance to that of Atlantis door controls but there was still something off about it.

The door beeped but did not open.

"Can you bypass that?" he asked Matthew, "I haven't seen another way in yet, and I have wondered how our friend here got into this corridor."

"Let me take a look." Matthew replied and he walked up to the door control and went to pull off the cover but the door beeped once more and the light turned yellow and it opened. "Well that was easy." He said stupefied, he hadn't done anything.

The corridor was hot and it stank, the corridor was damaged and there were breaches exposing the corridor to the lava that surrounded it and it was being held back by a shield, on the floor there were three burnt remains of Vanir.

"My god." Elizabeth exclaimed nervously, the corridor did not look safe at all and above them was a large metal conduit which sparked and crackled dangerously. "We cannot go through here."

"I don't think we have a choice." Frederick said pointing to the door up ahead which had been breached and pried open, "I think the Vanir got in through here, I read the report about their incursion into Atlantis, is that one of those platforms they use?"

John looked on the floor and there were seven of them, circular disks with some technology built it, "Yeah looks about right." He said and he looked up through the breaches in the corridor, "They came through these breaches?"

"Quite something isn't it." Matthew said with wonder, "They must have detected the shield fluctuating here and deemed it a weak point in the shield and those devices protected them and they got it. Although I think it was them who damaged that power conduit."

"Which would also explain the Vanir in there, the door must have opened and he got through before it sealed again." John agreed, "Come on let's go and be very quick, I would rather not die in here."

The heat of the corridor only increased as they went further and it was very unnerving walked under a river of molten rock and slag held back only by a shield, but once they were through the next door they were in a large atrium.

It was three stories and walk ways crossed above them and they could hear the sound of weapons fire above them, whatever the Vanir were facing it was putting up a fight. The team began to run through the vault looking for the way through, they found more dead Vanir occasionally and most of the facility was in ruins.

Eventually they caught up with the Vanir, they were not engaging any ground forces, no it was the facilities automated defence turrets that were killing them, and the team kept out of sight, they had seen no evidence of turrets in any of the corridors or rooms they had found so far.

Four of the Vanir had apparently decided to retreat while their fellow Vanir were destroyed and they fled the room, not noticing the Atlantis team hiding in a storage room. They waited for ten minutes and then the vault went silent.

"Do we continue?" Ronon said "That can only mean that they are dead."

"What choice do we have?" John replied, "We need to find whatever is down here before they do and find a way of reaching Helios."

Slowly they emerged from the storage room and peeked out into the corridor, it was not empty. They slowly approached the last room where the Vanir had been killed and oddly it was now devoid of all remains, there was no sign of the Vanir who they had watched being killed before hiding.

"How is that possible?" Elizabeth said "We saw five bodies just from out there."

"We shouldn't…." Ronon began to say but was cut short as twelve weapons turrets extended out from both the floor and the ceiling surrounding them.

"Your presence here is not sanctioned, you will now be sanitised." Said a voice over some form of internal communication system.

John, Frederick and Ronon all trained their guns on a number of the turrets but they knew they were outnumbered and out gunned.

As the turrets powered up and the team realised that they were about to die and they rapidly tried to think of a way out of the situation, the Vanir had their armour and that wasn't enough to protect them and they only had the thin micro polymer combat armour which would be cut through like a hot knife through butter.

A bright white light flashed through the room blinding them for a moment and then unexpectedly the turrets deactivated and withdrew back into their housing and a lone hologram appeared in front of them.

"Hello." It said "I have detected the presence of the Lantean Isomorph Activation Key, what is your purpose here and your planet of origin."

The team exchanged a look, what was going on here.

**Pegasus Galaxy – Deep Space – Ice field **

The meeting between Queen Steelflower and Queen Waterlight has been ongoing for some time, the younger queen was very cautious to join the Alliance and she seemed to be affronted by the mere look of Steelflower and Guide.

Steelflower was getting impatient with this young arrogant queen, she was not dangerous to the Alliance but she was a target for the Trinity, but what Steelflower hand noticed was that her top Blade, her top fighter and protector often spoke for her.

"You have dirtied yourself, you are no longer pure." Sharpdraw sneered, looking at Steelflower and his mind while guarded was easy for Steelflower to read.

Behind her she could feel Guide bristle at that insult, she might only be a human with wraith DNA but in this meeting she was his queen and she was just challenged by a Blade.

*Stay quiet and do not intervene* Steelflower said directly into his mind and she turned her hard gaze to the young queen "You let this Blade, who I now believe to be your consort to speak so freely, to allow him to speak so shows you are weak."

Waterlight hissed and her Consort went to speak again but before his Queen could stop him herself Steelflower spoke once more.

"You will keep silent." Steelflower commanded now understanding why Waterlight was hesitant and unsure of the offered Alliance, it was because of this Blade, the fact she listened to him meant they shared something deeper, "You are in the presence of a Queen who knows your place, if you speak once more I will have your tongue cut from your mouth and mounted on a wall as a warning to any other blade on this ship who speaks out of turn."

Sharpdraw withdrew away from her, the threat very real and he looked to his queen for support but she glared at him.

"What is it you want," Waterlight said after a moment, "You have spoken of joining against common threats but you have yet to explain what I and my hive will get out of this alliance."

"The Trinity Queens have established themselves as the leaders of our kind, if you do not join them they will kill you to prevent further challenges for power. They have culled worlds and leave none left to rear a new heard for us to harvest in generations to come." Steelflower explained, "My Alliance is all that stands against the Trinity, We stand alone in this fight and have altered ourselves to better defend against the plague that now infects so many worlds."

"The heard is diseased." Waterlight agreed, "But such a drastic change to our being, we diminish ourselves."

"Do we?" Steelflower mused, "The Predator no longer must fear their prey will kill them, our regenerative abilities are lower but still exist. We retain our minds and communication and can still use our technology. What is it we lose?"

"You no longer can use the gift of life." Waterlight said "How do we keep our worshippers if we cannot give them the gift."

Steelflower sneered, "The Worshipers are not our concern, they are a merely something we created to help our needs to feed years ago."

"Many of the Worshippers have already been culled by the Trinity." Guide added, "As they are not welcomed by other worlds they have not been exposed to the plague."

Waterlight considered that and nodded, "In essence I agree with you, what is it you want from me?"

"You join the Alliance and your numbers increase our own, you will be the second Queen of the Alliance and you will have a great position within it." Steelflower promised, "You are my sister in our endeavour to destroy the Trinity and take the Wraith to a new way of being."

The offer was very enticing to Waterlight, her Hive was small and she did not have the numbers to fight alone and she would be killed by the Trinity, they did not like Queens.

"From the Alliance you gain a position and a means of sustaining yourself without risk of death through feeding on humans." Steelflower continued, "All I ask is for your loyalty."

Waterlight nodded, much to the anger of her Consort but she was the Queen and she silenced him herself.

"Be Silent or I will give you over to Steelflower and she can do as she wishes with you." She spat and she struck at him sending him backwards into the wall, "I am the Queen of this hive and you will listen."

Sharp draw flinched and bowed shocked by the sudden strength of his queen.

"You came here to speak rather than arrive demanding my submission with the full strength of your Alliance of hives and cruisers." Waterlight said "I am aware your ships outnumber mine so why do you come as such and offer an alliance and not make demands?"

"To do so would be the act of an enemy, not a sister seeking an alliance with an equal." Steelflower responded remembering her teachings from Guide.

"Then I pledge my Hive to your alliance and name you Sister Then I name you my sister and Ally." Waterlight pledged.

"As I name you."

"Will you remain aboard my ship?" Waterlight asked.

"No, I must return to my own." Steelflower said, "I will have a group of my clevermen come aboard and begin the conversion of your hive, now I must leave I have an urgent matter I must resolve."

"Can I not help?" Waterlight asked eagerly, she needed to prove herself.

"The Trinity have taken a Lantean for their own ends." She told her, "I wish to find this cleverman to help our ends."

"Who is this Lantean cleverman?" Waterlight asked confused, "What need could you have for him."

"He will be useful in making a bargain with the Lanteans." Steelflower said smirking, "I plan to have them do some of our fighting for us."

Waterlight smiled now understanding and she looked to Sharpdraw who was speaking to her mentally and then her smile widened, "Before we are converted we shall investigate this for you, the Worshipers do not know we have joined you and we will see what they know."

"Thank you sister." Steelflower said and she returned to her ship.

**Milky Way Galaxy – Lucian Alliance ship construction World **

Nix was a small time member of the Lucian Alliance, most thought him insignificant and perhaps that was true, he operated on the down low preferring to not put his names to operations.

While the high ranking members squabbled and fought amongst themselves he was building his own fleet of ships. The world he controlled was not that well know and had been a secret of Sokar and it was from this world he was building from the ground up everything that he needed to fight the Alliance into submission and then defeat the annoying Tau'ri.

Over the last three years he had acquired the schematics to the three types of Ha'tak vessels, and he was adapting them into a newer fourth Class and the tests of the four already completed were promising.

The power generation had been improved due to the limited information the Alliance had stolen from Earth, and that extra power was spent on shielding, and weapons. The Alliance had begun building cobalt mines which had been put to use against Tau'ri ships, Nix however had missiles created, ten times the yield and better range.

He was in the middle of sending out his orders to his underlings when the communication terminal lit up in his office, the Goa'uld lettering showing it was an inbound transmission. He walked over and pressed the button to open the link.

"You are Nix, member of the Lucian Alliance?" Said the human in a dull tone.

"I am." He said while watching them carefully, he knew they were not from Earth, their technology and ships was very different, he didn't recognise these people in their tight blue suits at all. "Who are you and what do you want?"

"I am Dulion, I have been sent by the Aschen Confederation with an offer." Said the man, "It is our understanding that you are currently building your forces in order for you to attack the other members of your Alliance to seize control but to then take the fight directly to Earth."

Nix was not impressed, the fact these "Aschen" whoever they were knew that meant his security has been compromised and he glared in response, "What do you want." Subtly he pressed a button on the console to display the sensor reading for around the planet and tried to find their ship but according to the sensors there was none.

"We can provide you with the means of killing your superiors through a biological weapon, we will provide you with a vaccine against it." Dulion said, "You will get only one weapon and you will need to decide how to best use it. In exchange we wish to gain any information you have on Earth, their defences and capabilities."

Foolish was not something anyone accused Nix of being, and these Aschen were powerful that he could tell. He might have never heard of them but if what they said was true he could have use of a biological weapon and his mind was already thinking of ways to use it to best effect.

"You have a deal." He said committing himself, "what do you want to know."

**Pegasus Galaxy – Volcanis – Castor Vault**

"Who are you?" Elizabeth asked the hologram.

John however looked at the image and frowned he recognised him. He was older than he had ever seen him and the large scar down his face had made it hard to recognise him.

"You are Castor" he accused, "That was you name when you lived with the Lanteans on Atlantis."

"My image is based on that of my creator." The Hologram replied, "Castor was my creator who tasked me with continuing the ongoing protection of his vault and maintaining the operation of the facility."

"Why did you kill the Vanir and not us?" Frederick asked, "Not that I am complaining."

"The sensors within this facility detected hostile intent and my programming is very specific, they were to be terminated." The hologram said simply and it paused for a moment, "I have now updated my records with the name you give them."

"You do know that they are an offshoot of the Asgard, your allies from back in the Milky Way Galaxy." John pointed out, "They might have bad morals but you have killed your creator's allies."

The hologram paused and closed its eyes for a moment as it searched its programming for information, "The Asgard are allies of the ancient alliance of four, however these Vanir trespassed and sought the device which is locked away in the Vault, therefore lethal force was necessary to protect it."

"What is the purpose of this facility?" Matthew asked the hologram, "it was built with redundant technology."

"This facility was built with more robust technologies due to the extreme pressures of the planets molten surface, the designer and builder of the facility used technology from the past which was better suited to the task." The Hologram answered easily, "The purpose pf this facility changed many times and now it houses the Vault."

"So you protect this facility from anyone?" John asked, "but you did not terminate us, why?"

"I detected the genetic anomaly." It replied.

The team exchanged a look, not understanding what the odd hologram was talking about.

"Do you know the history of Castor?" It asked suddenly.

"He had a brother, they were scientists during the Lantean-Wraith war and they got in trouble with the High Council for building something." John answered from all that he could remember from his dreams.

Before Castor there was Zeudes, a scientist who pursued avenues of research that the High Council and other Lanteans found immoral. Ascension was known at this time but was believed to be beyond the Lanteans due to the less evolved physiology, so Zeudes sought other ways to live on.

One of his experiments was fathering a child, he picked a young seeded human and he seduced her, his experiment was to see if the lesser evolved human could procreate with a Lantean and to find what would be passed on.

An unforeseen outcome was that Lydeia gave birth to twins. Both boys and they were physically identical but on a genetic level different.

Pollux was the eldest, he was born a true Lantean like his father and he was embraced by the Lantean science academy. Castor however was different, he was not as evolved as the Lanteans but more evolved than and other member of the seeded species, but it was his mind that was entirely unique and it put him at odds with the council and the science academy.

"So what was he?" Elizabeth probed "You make it sound like he was somewhere between them both."

"It was a genetic accident." The hologram agreed "A fluke of nature, he devoured the science taught by the Lanteans but he could not be held back by the constraints of them and made intuitive leaps that unnerved the Lanteans who watched him and he pursued areas of science that even his father did not dare. His pursuit of answers was vast and he did not put stock in the rules."

"So he was a renegade?" John said amused what was it with certain Ancient and not listening to rules, "Like Janus?"

"I have no knowledge of the one you call Janus" The hologram stated and then continued "Castor had not been accepted by the High Council due to his pursuits but when the war escalated the needed every mind and Castors mind was put to great use. As the war continued the Lanteans began to lose heavily and many chose to ascend to run from the war."

"We know this part of their history." Frederick said "The Lanteans either ascended, died or returned to Earth."

"That is what eventually happened but before then the war was turning against them as the Wraith outnumbered the Lanteans five to one and their numbers grew while the Lanteans lost even more. Castor however thought of a way to bolster their ranks in a way that had never before been conceived.

The Council recruited from the human's worlds to help their numbers but it didn't really help and they began to take a different approach to the problem, one where they would not need the lesser humans and wouldn't have to resort to cloning which he though thought a mockery of science.

"The Ascended." Elizabeth breathed "He turned to the Ascended, and created the device we are looking for."

The hologram smiled "By that point there was hundred if not a thousand recorded ascended Lanteans and Altera, but in all the time they had been ascended they had not interacted with the lower plane and so after trying to appeal to them, Castor applied his mind to find a way to get them to come down."

It took him four years to create but eventually he succeeded with the help of his brother to devise a way to interact with ascended and summon them to the lower plane so that he might speak with them and try and gain their support.

But his work was discovered by the High Council and they had the device destroyed and his work was deleted. The War was getting closer to Lantea and Castor and Pollux were assigned to ships to help with the war effort.

It was on a ship that Pollux was mortally wounded by the Wraith, and instead of coming back to Atlantis to get healed he instead ascended. Castor's father also ascended rather than fight in losing battle leaving Castor alone.

Despite his advanced physiology, Castor was unable ascend himself, he tried everything method known to the Lanteans to help ascend but failed. So he needed Ascended help, he came to this old facility that his father had built and with a secret backup of his researched created a second device.

Once it was complete Castor forced his brother and father down from the Higher Plane and had help him ascend." The hologram continued, "Castor did not remain up on the higher plane, he returned here once thousands of years ago and he took something from the vault and left once more."

"You say he came back, was he still ascended?" Frederick asked looking at Dr Weir, "We were under the impression that he shouldn't have been able to do anything like that."

"I can assure you that my records indicate Castor returned, he returned to physical form in order to enter as ascended beings cannot enter this facility." The Hologram told them, "My programming was deactivated for twelve days before I awoke once more and he was gone."

"We need to find whatever remains of the device Castor created." Elizabeth said hoping the Hologram would listen, "the Vanir want it and we cannot let them."

"Can we get the device?" Ronon said holding his gun at the ready, it felt like a trap.

"Open the door and let us inside." Frederick demanded.

"I can open the door to the Vault, but I would advise you not to proceed. Only Castor and Pollux can remove the device from its resting place." The Hologram said smirking evilly, "Castor made sure that should anyone try and take his device they would regret it."

"You will just open the door for us?" John asked suspiciously, they must be walking into a trap.

"I have no choice but to open the door, I was programmed to follow the directives of Castor and Pollux." It replied and it closed its eyes and behind it a doorway shimmered into existence, "You are being followed by more of the Vanir, as of now I will not stop them, if in one hour you have not exited the facility the shield will fail and the device will be lost."

Exchanging a look, the team ran as fast as the could and went through the door.

**/**********************************************************************************\**

Please Review! I want to know what you think!

Next time of Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race.

\- Destiny Dials back to Earth

\- A SG Team is killed off-world

\- Castors Device is found

\- Teyla struggles with being Steelflower

Images of the various ships can be found on my Twitter Account,

Just search "Jayan Phoenix Twitter" and scroll through the posts and you will find images of the Daedalus-Class, Ares-Class and the new _Prometheus-Class_

**/**********************************************************************************\**


	41. Chapter 41

Stargate: Ascension of the Fifth Race

**Chapter Forty One**

**The Spear**

Pegasus Galaxy – Volcanis – Castor Vault

The Atlantis team had been able to make their way through the vault into the deeper levels, something that had not been easy. The Vault security hologram didn't help them and acted more as a hinderance. It would distract them while security features activated and it couldn't tell them more about the security systems or deactivate them.

John and the small team had been attacked by various genetically engineered creatures, what they had been originally was not clear but whatever they were, it was old and they were mad. Being left in stasis had not been good for them and the team thought the experiments had never been sanctioned by the Ancient Lantean High Council.

Other security features were also activated, automated mechanical drones, weapons systems and shielding activated numerous times and the team had been forced to defend themselves or work a way around an obstacle.

In reality the entire vault was a security system, the further they travelled into the deeper levels the hotter the vault got. The Vanir had not been as fortunate as the Lanteans having tripped many of the defences and killing four of them, if it hadn't been for the bodies the Lanteans might have also fallen prey to the weapons fire.

They discovered that the Vanir while unsuccessful in their first attempt to enter the vault had managed to fine another way in by exploiting a weak point in the structure and the shielding to smash a way through themselves and they had got ahead of the Lantean team.

Oddly there was a second layer of security which they found, controlling some of the defences. To access them required the mental key that only responded to one of the twins and John hadn't even been able to detect the interfaces let alone use them once active.

The twins were able to open numerous doors thanks to their odd level of access, but most of the doors had been forces open by the Vanir. They didn't have the key but their technological prowess was superior to the humans.

After forty minutes they caught up with the Vanir who were trying to penetrate another large metal door which like the one which was guarded by the hologram was impressive and impenetrable but that did not deter the Vanir and they were now trying to cut their way in.

John, Ronon and Frederick crouched behind doorway for cover as they watched, the cutting instruments they were using were having no effect on whatever the doors composition was.

"You are ill advised to continue trying to access Castors Vault." The Hologram said pointedly, "That door can only be opened by either Castor, Pollux or even Zeudes."

"Your function is to protect this facility, not lecture." Said one of the armoured suits which contained the Vanir. "Your creators are long dead, their people have all left this plane of existence, your continued operations are redundant.

"Your conclusion is flawed." The Hologram said simply, "That door can only be opened by Castor, Pollux and Zeudes Genetic imprint. Should you continue to try and penetrate the Vault you will be killed."

The Vanir were getting frustrated and increased the output of power to their cutter but it still had no affect.

"You got a plan?" Ronon asked John, "We are even in numbers but those suits are protection against all weapons fire."

"Those suits are based on Ancient Lantean or Alteran technologies could we not exploit a flaw or something?" Frederick asked his brother, "Have you ever studied them?"

"There are no examples of those suits or even a precursor on Atlantis, but we have seen references and some schematics." Matthew shrugged, "Its not my area of research, although from what I am aware other than those found on Destiny no research has been conducted by anyone."

John ground his teeth as he thought, they had to get passed them.

"Any idea on a weakness?" John asked him, "Anything at all?"

"Aim for the back of the neck?" Matthew said half heartedly but he frowned, "From what I remember from the reports filed by Dr Jackson and Dr McKay those suits are used to overcome their physical restrains and because their home is toxic and uninhabitable."

"That's how they managed to evade the Wraith." John agreed, he knew that, "How does that help?"

"Well the ancients created them to EVA, but from what we know from Destiny they can be damaged." Matthew said quickly thinking hard and studying them around the corner, "They are not employing a shield, and I doubt that the alloy is thick. If we aim for the Regulators on the back and other weak points with the P90's we might actually have a shot."

Frederick groaned at the pun but looked concerned, "What about our energy weapons?"

"I do not think they will work." Matthew said cautiously, "If they have any dampening tech within the suit the energy from the weapons will be dissipated not unlike the Institute Combat suits."

"So projectile weapons." John said agreeing and he pulled up his P90 as did Frederick, Ronon took the gun from Dr Weir as she didn't even know how to fire it.

They stepped out from the doorway and John was just about to announce them but the Vanir detected them.

"The Lanteans have come." Said the lead Vanir and he opened fire with his plasma pistol.

The firefight was fast and brutal, luckily none of the Atlantis team got hit and Frederick and John shot them straight in the eyes of the suits to blind them while Ronon peppered other areas and they killed three of them before they had to retreat back out of the room.

"As you can see, you are susceptible to our weapons fire." John shouted, "You are trespassing on a Ancient Lantean facility, the Vanir and Asgard have no right to enter this facility. That right is reserved to the people of Earth as the Ancient's children."

"You may be their children, you may even come from Terra where they made their home, but you have no claim to their entire heritage. All humans are their descendants." The Asgard dismissed, "We seek to save our people and we will fight to our deaths to make sure we succeed."

"Then you will die!" Ronon spat and he expanded a magazine around the doorway but no idea if he had hit anything.

"Death is meaningless to the Vanir." The leader stated, "You are aware of the Asgard species you know how we endure."

John knew exactly what he meant, their dead would be reborn once more in new bodies and their consciousness downloaded into them, it was perhaps an advantage of being a clone.

"Let me try." Elizabeth said and John paused not wanting to put her in danger but knowing if any of them had a chance to prevent bloodshed it would be her and her diplomatic skills. "My name is Dr Elizabeth Weir, I am from Earth and I was once an Asuran Replicator. But I also briefly spent some time among the Ascended."

"What do you tell us this?" The Vanir asked, "Your history is of no consequence."

"Then perhaps you would be interested to know who it was that I met in my brief time among them." Elizabeth continued barely registering the interruption. "My return to this life was given to me by one name Odr, perhaps that name means something to you."

The Vanir paused and there was a long silence, before it was broken.

"You seek to deceive us." The Vanir said but it sounded less sure of itself now.

"No, I met Odr once after I broke the rules of the Ascended." Elizabeth said and John watched her with surprise she had never mentioned meeting this person. "From my own research I believe that she was a Asgard, I am not sure whether Aesir or Vanir but I think she might be one of the only Asgard to ever achieve Ascension."

"Your deduction is correct." The Vanir said, "If what you said is true then our efforts here must be doubled."

"So you seek the device, a device that can interact with the high plane?" Elizabeth stated, "You wish to what? Force Odr to return to the mortal plane? For what end?"

"That is our concern Dr Weir." The lead vanir said, and it pointed towards them, "enough of this incapacitate them while we get through this door."

"You will not open that door." The Hologram said, "It can only be opened by Castor…"

"Deactivate that program." The Vanir said sternly.

John, Frederick, Ronon and Matthew looked at each other, they would have no choice but to kill them, they launched themselves out of cover and fired. Frederick took a glancing shot to his arm leaving a painful burn and missing tissue but it did not stop him and he continued to shoot, his brother came from now where and reached his side in order to protect his flank.

The room was getting hotter and hotter, the air thinning with each breath and it was making it all the more harder for the humans to breath, while the Vanir had the advantage of their suits.

But thanks to the new ammunition received from the SGC having been developed in tandem with Area 51 and the Institute the Diamond and naquadah tipped explosive rounds which had been designed to combat the wraith advanced healing factor, but they were just as effective on Vanir exo-skeletons.

Only the lead Vanir remained alive and it was putting up a very hard fight, but it would not stop and time was running out.

John and Ronon flanked the vanir while Frederick and Matthew drew its fire head on, and the Vanir may have advanced sensors within their visors it four on one was bad odds even for them.

The Vanir must have known this so tried to run away but it didn't get far as John and Ronon's bullet hit the exo-skeleton in the back and cut its power and it fell to the floor crippled.

"You may have defeated me Humans but you will never unlock the Vault, and should you accomplish that we will come, our survival depends on it." The Vanir said and as it did the suit pulsated and the back withdrew and it revealed the weakened Vanir inside who clambered out.

"We are not your enemies by choice." John told it sternly, "This is your own doing."

He lifted his gun to kill it and be done with it but Elizabeth stopped him with a touch to the arm.

"He is defenceless and unarmed, he poses no threat in his condition and he is without any technology." She told him, but she was looking at it sympathetically, "Earth was very good friends with the Asgard, and one our leading military members was personal friends with Supreme Commander Thor. The Asgard killed themselves to prevent their technology being pillaged by an ancient evil and chose to end their lives due to unsuccessfully overcoming their failed cloning process."

"We too have not overcome the constraints our forebears created by the errors in the early cloning stages of our development." The Vanir said, "Our experiments with humans failed, this is our only choice should we wish to continue our existence."

"So this Ancient Lantean device actually works?" Frederick guessed, "How did you find it?"

"We found mention of this facility in the outpost where the Ancient Janus conducted the Attero tests." He said, "We were able to deduce the location and we heard tell of Castor long ago, his father was also known to us."

"As a genetic expert I would guess he would be of help to you." John said darkly, and he turned to the doorway and regarding it carefully, he was not sure they could ever bust it open, even a drone didn't look like it could make a dent.

The Hologram was standing next to the door smirking and watching, or at least that was what its program was making it do.

"Can you open this door?" John demanded.

"I have already said that this door requires the imprint of Castor, Pollux or Zeudes." It said, "Only their imprint can open the door to access what lies inside."

"And what lies inside?" Frederick asked.

"Only that which Castor did not wish to be destroyed." The Hologram said, "you have but five minutes until this facility is engulfed in fire."

John turned to Matthew as his normal go to guy for anything relating to advanced technology was lost to the Wraith currently. "Any idea?"

Matthew walked forward and looked at it critically, "I do not see any terminal, socket or any way to interact with the door, it must have some type of secret way of opening."

"Only the genetic imprint of my creator, his brother or father could open that door." The Hologram said once more.

John looked at it again, and frowned, despite the hair colour difference at the fact that the hologram was of an older man with long hair and a bearded otherwise looking like Merlin or Dumbledore there was something about it that bugged him.

"Yes you have already said that, how about something helpful?" Frederick muttered darkly, "We are on a time limit here."

"I have told you, only the genetic imprint…"

"Ignore him." Elizabeth said, "We need to get that door open, and we need to leave soon."

Nodding and pulling out his handheld device Matthew walked forward and began to try and scan the door to find its open button. "I think there is something here." Matthew said pointing at a spot a moment later, the reading is weak but something is in this spot." He reached out and prodded a single spot.

As he touched the door light danced across the metal, and it formed a large network of interconnecting lines across it and the shone like stars and then words formed in the air on a holographic display sprang up and ancient script appeared.

_Genetic Profile Accepted._

_Recurring genetic template and Isomorphic Lantean genetic key detected._

_Profile Match: Pollux_

_Genetic heritage: P. _

_Origin: Unknown_

"What did you do?" Frederick asked in wonder, "Why does it think you are Pollux?"

Matthew didn't get to say anything else as the door opened and then the metal structure of the room they were in began to melt away and molten lava came pouring in only to be stopped by a shield.

"RUN!" John shouted and he grabbed hold of Elizabeth's Arm while Ronon picked up the frail little Vanir and they ran into the room.

"You were warned." The Hologram said before its holographic projector was consumed by the lava and it dissipated.

The Vault was not large, it was perhaps fifty feet and circular and filled with all manner of devices, it was a vault or depository where the brothers and perhaps their father left all their inventions.

"Do we even know what we are looking for?" Ronon shouted.

"Spear." The Vanir said.

John hardly heard what he said and he saw at the very end of the vault was a large platform and suspended over a podium was the spear or device he had seen in his dreams.

"Its there." He said and they ran towards it even as the lava followed them in, he was sweating profusely now and the smell around him made him fill sick.

But like the door there seemed to be no way for them to get it, no on of off switch and even Matthew was unable to deactivate it by touching it, although he was running his hands across every surface like a blind man.

"Here!" He suddenly said while examining a wall which was slowly growing hotter, he was pointing at a hole that had appeared not much wider than a fist, he was now pointing his small diagnostic device into it and it was beeping and glowing, "I think there is a control device in there."

"Reach in and press it then." Ronon exclaimed and he placed the Vanir on the floor where it lay unmoving now.

"There is a stream of lava between me and the button." Matthew said desperately, "In order to push it you must push you hand through the lava."

Matthew pocketed his device and went to thrust his hand into the hole before John could even stop him, but just as he hand reached the hole a stunner hit Matthew in the side, John spun around and saw Frederick bolstering his weapon.

"What the hell!" John exclaimed.

"My brother is not going to maim himself for this!" He stated firmly and without further talk he moved forward and pulled his brother out the way just as he was coming back around, obviously only hit with a mild powered stunner. "He is not gonna be happy about this."

Frederick thrust his arm deep into the whole and his face contorted in pain and every muscle in his neck could be seen but he didn't cry out even when they knew his arm was being burnt.

The smell was awful, but it was nothing compared to the shout of anguish from Matthew when he woke up and saw what his brother had done, but Frederick didn't here him, the lava and fire was spreading up his arm and it could be seen at his elbow which was at the edge of the hole.

But then a shield sprang around platform, another then appeared in front of it and began to sweep away from them pulling the lava and molten rock away and back out of the structure, the shields then remained and the building was secured once more and oddly didn't even look damaged.

Suddenly Frederick screamed as the fire spread further up his arm, and it ate away his flesh.

Matthew was aghast not knowing what to do, and it was then that Ronon came out of no where and swung his largest knife from the back of his belt at Frederick's arm and slashed through it easily.

The blackened flesh was sickening to see but some of the tissue was not burnt and blackened was red and fleshy and bleeding profusely.

John rushed forward and grabbed hold of his arm, with no time to be delicate he with the help for Ronon thrust his arm back into the hole and used the remaining fire and lava to cauterise it.

Matthew was still shocked but seeing what they had done pulled him out and he looked murderous.

"What have you done!" He demanded.

"Saved him." Ronon grunted.

Frederick fainted only to be caught by his brother.

"We should leave." Elizabeth said weakly and they could see she was trying not to be sick, "the spear is here."

She held it up carefully, it was rather ordinary looking but none of the three men with the ATA gene went to take it, they did not want to activate it. Slowly they made their way back through the vault structure so they could get back to the jumper.

Unnamed Galaxy – Billions of Light Years From Earth

It had been four hours since the crew of _Destiny_ had woken from their long slumber in the stasis halls and slowly they had been getting settled back into their quarters and normal duties were being resumed.

The stasis hadn't caused any adverse effects on the crew at least that they knew, the only observation was that they all lacked an appetite, didn't have a need for water and all bodily functions had stopped.

TJ had ordered every member of the crew to the Mess to eat and drink to force the body back into its natural rhythm.

The only incident had been Eli.

Colonel Young has arrived in the Gateroom to find the dialling console was on and it was showing a data packet with very detailed instructions for how he could dial the ship from itself. It took Young thirty minutes to get the dialling program to accept the instructions and the gate began to dial and then the event horizon appeared.

Eli stepped out of the gate and he smiled at Young but as the gate shut off and then he fell to the floor unconscious.

They transferred him directly to the infirmary and TJ began to work on him but she didn't know what was wrong with him, his brain waves were erratic and he was in an unresponsive coma. She was not sure that he would pull through but she was keeping him comfortable, but the ships instruments said that he was fine.

When Eli had come out of the gate, _Destiny_ had begun to move from its stationary orbit of the sun and it adjusted its trajectory so that it would pass through all fifteen of the planets in the star system, as the ship moved the countdown clock came online.

Doctor Rush gained access to the bridge after the clock activated, and he began to siphon through the vast amounts of data on the star system that the seed ships had set them. He found four habitable worlds, one of which was an Earth-like world.

Colonel Young was content with the state of the crew and the overall status of the ship hasn't changed since they entered stasis. They were fortunate that the ship hadn't developed any further problems during that time but they had a more pressing concern.

Resources were incredibly low on the ship, all of their fresh food had expired, their water supply was low, and their stockpile was the Earth protein powder they had brought from Icarus base was almost entirely depleted.

The food stores were of gravest concern as the hydroponics lab plants had died during their stasis without the power on. The dome had breached while in they were recharging in the blue giant which meant their secondary site for growing their own resources was beyond their reach.

Added to the low food and water supplies, they were also low on munitions, even the supplies that the Lucian Alliance brought with them wouldn't be enough to defend the ship, defend off world teams and hunt for food for long if they found hostile threats.

Young was walking into the bridge when the ships systems beeped and he saw that Doctor Rush and Kyle Brody, and Chloe Armstrong were at consoles.

"Update?" he said taking his own seat in the captain's chair, not that he used its systems.

"The gate has just connected with the gate on the Earth-like planet" Brody said spinning around on his chair to look at him.

"Bridge this is Volker in the gate room" said a voice over the radio.

"Go ahead." Young said .

"We are getting telemetry from the kino, patching it through now" he replied.

The kino feed was fed to the monitors and showed them a vast open plain of grass, surrounded by forests.

"Readings look good, breathable, no pollutants or detectable pathogens." Volker said, "based on the database I would say this is a good place to restock."

Young sat and looked at the feed from the Kino and contemplated their next move, but it was obvious to him as they didn't have a choice.

He pressed the button on his radio, "Lieutenant James assemble teams, we are going to need everything we can get from that planet as our stores are low." Young ordered, "five teams of eight with two military personnel per team and each team must have one of the scientists on it."

"Yes sir." She replied and cut the radio "Do we have a list of what we are looking for?"

Young looked at Rush and Brody, "Can we get some?"

The doctors looked at each other but didn't say anything but Brody nodded, "Sure, give me a few minutes." He then stood from his chair and hurried out off the Bridge.

"We are getting you a list, you will need to split it between the teams and coordinate between you." Young told Lt. James, "We have two hundred and forty hours on the clock, so that should give us ample time to ressuply, we might even get in some R&amp;R."

"Colonel, I would suggest taking the shuttle down to the planet." Rush said unexpectedly

"Why?" Young asked turning his attention away from the cheers he could hear on the other end of the radio.

"From the data we have on this star system, two of the planets in orbit of the star contain vast mineral deposits." Rush said in his usual testy manner, "Those minerals can be used to carry out the repairs this ship needs, the repair robots will need the raw materials to enact repairs as I am sure whatever stores wherever they are must be low."

"Have we found any mining equipment?" Young asked "what about refining equipment?"

"We could use the shuttles weapons systems to remove the raw materials from the planets surface, and then use the shuttle to get them here." Chloe told him.

"I cannot be certain, but in the database there is an area of the ship that is marked as maintenance area in the forward section that we have yet to explore." Rush said bring up the ships schematics, "We wont know for sure until we get someone down to that area, but if I am right then there should be some type of Ancient refinery machines we could make use of."

Volker who had been listening to them over the radio then added, "Even if we don't have access to that section of the ship yet, having a stockpile of materials wouldn't be a bad thing Colonel. As we know this ship requires a great deal of repairs."

"Bullets." Rush added quickly "We could also start to manufacture our own bullets if we got the materials we needed."

Young gave him a look, it was a blatant attempt to sway him using their need of munitions to gain the support of the military commander, but he needn't have bothered he all ready saw the advantages this could have.

"What are we looking for?" Young asked "what minerals?"

"_Destiny's_ hull is an alloy, I have identified a mix of carbon, trinium, naquadah and two substances that are unknown to us." Rush said "however we can patch areas of the hull using any metal alloy, I believe the robots will be able to repair some of the damaged areas. But given the time we have we could use every mineral we can get our hands on."

"Given the composition of the hull, we could patch some small areas with any strong alloy we could produce, but it would be weaker than the original hull." Volker added, "But the other metals can be used to repair internal systems, this ships tech is not as refined as that found on Atlantis, its was built predominantly with circuitry rather than crystal technology."

Young nodded, "do it." he looked up at the countdown "we have ten days, let's make every minute count, I want every member of the crew on the planet on rotation, we need to resupply urgently and it will do everyone good to get off the ship even for a few hours. Rush can you lengthen the time on the countdown?"

"No, the clock is not something we control. Even with the master code," Rush stated sounding irritated and he glared at the offending clock "The AI has initiated a full system diagnostic which is why we have so long on the clock, and I would not want to jump to FTL yet, the drives need a rest after so being used so continuously."

"I would also suggest we carry out a physical inspection of the drive." Volker told them, "the diagnostic isn't always right, we have learnt that to our own cost."

"Yes thank you Mr Volker." Rush snapped.

"When do we check in with Earth?" Chloe asked, "You know people will want to do that after three years of not seeing their families."

"As soon as we are back up and running." Young promised.

Milky Way Galaxy – Lucian Alliance controlled space – USS Sun Tzu

Deep within the Lucian Alliance controlled space the Sun Tzu was crippled, its propulsion drives had been severely damaged and repairs were underway to get the ship operational once more.

Under normal circumstances they would have broadcast a distress beacon or sent out a sub space message but given where they were and how they were stuck it was too much of a risk.

The Alliance had scored a lucky hit on the ship, it was stuck between the Mark I and Mark II design of the Daedalus-Class and its shields were down in the jump to hyperspace.

Captain INSERT NAME watched the space outside the ship with a critical eye, the ship was drifting and it still had its weapons and shields but without propulsion they were sitting ducks.

EVA teams were out even now carrying out maintenance and repairs to the key propulsion systems that couldn't be reached in the ship. It had already been hours and they still had at least three hours left.

The Alliance has known they had fled the area, but they were bound to send out patrols to check the system for any Earth verses, it was just a matter of who got there first, either the repair team or Alliance.

A warning sounded on the bridge alerting them to a the presence of an incoming vessel.

The captain issued very strict orders, "All teams be advised we have incoming, preparing to activate the cloak."

Shimmering the ship disappeared from view, it was a gamble but the Alliance did not have the level of technology needed to detect them so far as they knew.

Two Al'kesh dropped out of hyperspace and began to sweep through the space.

"Do we open fire?" One of the crew asked.

"And give away our position?" The captain asked sternly, "We do nothing."

Another hour went by but the ships did not leave and were sending out pulses, whatever there purpose it didn't do anything to the larger ship.

But then one of the ships changed course and was on a direct intercept path to the Sun Tzu.

The captain looked at the screen detailing the repairs that were complete, they were not going to move anytime soon.

"Order Sir?"

"Get ready to transfer from cloak to shield." The captain ordered, "power the weapons and prepare all missiles."

An alarm for general quarters sounded, the lights in the bridge dimmed and the crew was scrambling to be ready.

"What about the repair teams?" His second in command asked.

"They stay outside." The captain told him, "We can destroy two bombers easily, but they will call reinforcements, we need our engines back online."

His second in commanded nodded, it went unsaid but the chances were those men and women were not going to return to Earth.

The Alliance ship coming in fast and unbeknownst to them were heading straight for the ship, as it got within twenty feet the shield operator had his finger held over the button that would transition from cloak to shield, it took only moments so they were waiting till the last moment.

Suddenly the Sun Tzu materialised and the bomber hit the shield dead on and it was destroyed on impact.

"Destroy the other ship before it reveals our location!" The captain ordered.

The white lance struck out but the ship dodged it due to the distance between them, and it fired its own weapons which hit the shield having no effect.

"Sir! Its broadcasting our location!" The sensor operator said alarmed, "and I have already detected four ships change direction to respond."

Milky Way Galaxy – PX7 MR77 – Human World of Dal'thano

Delphi was once a Goa'uld who had sought to record the entire history of the Goa'uld but she had been defeated and exiled by the first generation of system lords for her blasphemous idea as it could reveal there truth to their falsehoods.

After her exhale the System Lord Ra took control of the planet and made it a world devoted to the worship of him and on one of the many islands had the Grand Temple of the Sun built in his honour. The temple was made of polished black stone, gold and precious gem stones and told the false story of the God Ra.

After Ra was killed by the Tau'ri the planet fell under the control of Apophis and he ordered a new temple built, detailing a false story of how he defeated Ra and took his place as the supreme god. The temple was being built on a smaller island when Apophis was killed but the Dal'thanonan people completed the temple.

This temple was the smallest they had built, with only a twenty foot pyramid of unpolished stone, but surrounded by needles of gold and polished black stone, it might have been the smallest but it was still exquisitely built.

Anubis took control of the planet after, and while he didn't have need of a temple to keep them subjugated to his will he ordered his own temple to be built. It was built on a larger island and took up the most area of the ones they had built but it was only one story to represent his connection to the underworld.

The last Goa'uld to take control of the planet was Baal, he had only taken it to search for hidden secrets but had found none. Unlike he fellow Goa'uld he did not order a temple built as he was fighting the Ori and didn't return.

But the Ori soon arrived and exposed the truth of those they called Gods, the people were sour that their gods were false but refused to demolish the temples that their people had built, instead the Priors only asked that they build a new temple in honour of the Ori which they did.

When the truth that even the Ori were false the people of the world turned away from religion and worship. The temples remained intact to remind people of the falsehoods of gods, and instead they began to look for answers in rational thinking.

SG4 was sent to investigate this world, the Tok'ra had trailed a minor Goa'uld to the planet but had lost track of it, and so Stargate Command was investigating.

The oddness of the planet and its many temple islands made it a great discovery for Earth and the SG team believed that the temples should be visited by Dr Jackson but he was on another mission aboard the Odyssey.

The SG team however had a mission to do and they continued to look for the minor Goa'uld.

Ida Galaxy – Idavoll – Asgard Homeworld

The powerful ship Ragnarok sat high in the atmosphere of the planet, the underside of its hull glowed at five points as Asgardian Matter Stream technology created structures on planet surface.

The structure was large, with one very large cylindrical tower in the centre with others branching out from the centre point like a cross, between each point was water and the structure was encircled by further structures.

Supreme Commander Thor had built this capital building based on an old Asgard design which had been updated while in the Cascade. A large central power core was installed in the heart of the building and it would begin to power the start of the new city.

Ragnarock was in the process of finishing the outer construction of the building but it would require some finer construction needs in the interior by the actual Asgard rather than beaming technology.

A console chimed drawing the supreme commanders attention, he looked it over and was please to see that the construction of the capital building was now complete. The ship automatically ended the construction program.

"It is time." Thor said moving to another console and he moved a control stone and his ship began to move up into the atmosphere before returning to orbit. He sent a message to the Asgard fleet in the area to tell them what he planned, and he sent a subspace message to the High Council that was even now travelling towards their new home.

The Ragnarok powered up its sublight engines and began to move quickly away from the planet before a hyperspace window opened and the ship jumped into subspace, the navigation computer and the ships commander were fixated on a single world.

Earth.


End file.
